What is Mo Brooks Thinking?
Republican Madison County Commissioner Mo Brooks tells the Parlor in email this weekend, “I will probably wait until the week of qualifying to decide whether to run for Congress.”
He offered additional thoughts on running for AL-05 and gave permission to share them here.
I’ve made an extensive list of the pros and cons of running for Congress. A very succinct and abbreviated summary is this:
(1) Impact on family finances of campaigning (lost work time): A huge negative. I’ve got two sons at Auburn and one daughter at BYU. That’s expensive.
(2) Impact on family finances of winning the election and becoming a Congressman: Another negative (particularly when you take into account the cost of a second home and travel expenses for my wife).
(3) Impact on family: A very big negative. My wife is a middle school math teacher. She’d either have to quit her job and travel with me to Washington or stay in Huntsville . . . causing us to live apart for 60-70% of the year. Neither option is ideal or as good as what we now enjoy.
(4) Impact on quality of my life: Another negative. A good Congressman has little or no time for himself. No fishing. No whitewater rafting or canoeing (something I very much enjoy). No outdoors hiking. No time for basketball games with friends. No North Alabama Table Tennis Club matches (I play competitively).
(5) The attacks on my name and character that would surely come and whether I want to put me and my family through them: A very big negative. Any polling done now would likely show me the frontrunner by a healthy margin (based on my name identification, seven successful campaigns for public office, the outspoken and candid ways in which I address public policy issues, and the visible stances I’ve taken on illegal aliens, tax increases, and the like). If I jump in, I will be the target of everyone’s efforts to pull me back to the pack. I am not sure I want to put my family through all of that this year.
(6) There are only two positive reasons for running:
A. One is duty to country and the possibility of having a positive impact on critical public policy issues. America faces major issues (energy, economy, national defense, illegal aliens, tax increases, national debt and budget deficits, and the like). If these issues continue to be handled poorly (or not at all) by our Washington “leaders” (who seemingly lack political backbone, an understanding of public policy cause and effect, or both), America’s future will be one of decline and stagnation. Being a positive force for change is the major reason for running.
B. The other is the chance to vote to oust Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House. I would really enjoy that.
If really good Republican candidates surface, my decision will be an easy one and I won’t run. A “really good Republican candidate” is one who:
(a) Understands the basic fundamental principles that have made our nation great (capitalism, moral values, Republican form of government, and principles underlying the Bill of Rights),
(b) Has the backbone to stick by these principles in the face of sweet talking from lobbyists, and pressure from special interest groups;
(c) Has shown a history of (a) and (b), above (as opposed to someone who professes the foregoing merely to campaign for Congress); and
(d) Has a good enough background to be a viable general election candidate.
Unfortunately, no “really good Republican candidates” have announced for Congress (albeit it is still very early).
Time will tell whether my decision will be an easy one, or a very, very hard one.
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He makes some strong points. It seems his biggest negatives for running are impacts to his family and his financial bottom line. I don’t have much sympathy however. He has run for office seven times already. No matter if that is a county commission or congressional race, all races take money and has a huge impact on one’s family. It seems as if he is trying to make it look like if he runs he is making a huge sacrifice and the voters should feel sorry for him.
While I have no problems with Mo and feel like he has done a good job of public service, we all know that running for office takes ego and a certain desire for power. Good or bad, that is the truth of it. I’d advise to tone back the “woe is me rhetoric” and talk more about your record and what you would do in Congress. No one particularly cares about the sacrifices you will make - they want someone to represent them well in DC and bring home the bacon. The family and finances is like watching sausage being made.
Comment by Anonymous — March 17, 2008 @ 9:27 am
Mo sure did leave a lot of his eyesores/old campaign signs up from ‘06 throughout the district. As far as Tom Butler goes….they need to get Jim Preuitt to switch as well. That way we can end part of this charade once and for all thats been going on in the senate the past decade. Also what about the Decatur Mayor for Cramers seat? He just happens to be announcing a billion dollar mall project today that will be built on the Limestone County side of the tennessee river. Its reportedly going to be anchored by a hotel and a bass pro shop.
Comment by dan t — March 17, 2008 @ 9:33 am
The biggest negative about Mo for me is that his daughter goes to BYU!
Comment by Willie — March 17, 2008 @ 10:07 am
Anonymous in comment #1,
I don’t hear him saying “woe is me” at all nor do I hear him saying “voters should feel sorry for him.” There has been much speculation about whether he would run for the seat, and he was nice enough to share his current thinking. This is not a stump speech. There will be time for him to “talk more about his record and what he would do in Congress” if he decides to run.
Comment by Danny — March 17, 2008 @ 10:47 am
Mo,
Given your two ridiculous “positive reasons” for running, I take great pleasure in asking you to go ahead and sit this one out.
Your first reason casually segways into the rather cliche and predictable “broken Washington” nonsense. Though this tried and true form of demagoguery appeals to the under-educated and angry, it really does nothing for me. We live in the greatest country on the planet — please understand this. Our institutions and system have no equal. The only problem with government is those criticizing it in an attempt to join it.
Secondly, though I don’t particularly care for Speaker Pelosi, I see no reason to elect someone whose second most important reason for being there will be to unseat her. I’d settle for about 200 million in pork a year for our still poverty-stricken state. Thank you Senator Shelby.
While I do appreciate your willingness to expose yourself to some criticism here, I readily admit that your post warrants a great deal of it. I’ve really never heard of you, so your self-proclaimed status as the frontrunner seems a little contrived. And as for your standards for a “good Republican candidate”, who cares what you think? Who says you’re one?
Comment by Gunney Highway — March 17, 2008 @ 1:57 pm
Dear Mo,
I hope you realize the reasons you shouldn’t run out weigh the reasons you should run.
Comment by bhmhomeboy — March 17, 2008 @ 2:54 pm
Interesting comments…
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.
Comment by Danny — March 18, 2008 @ 1:24 am
Danny,
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.
Comment by Gunney Highway — March 18, 2008 @ 8:53 am
Hi Gunney Highway,
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.
Comment by Danny — March 18, 2008 @ 12:09 pm
Cool.
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.
Comment by Gunney Highway — March 18, 2008 @ 1:06 pm
We’re all good here. I appreciate your thoughts and am glad that there is a space here for you to do a little rambling.
Remind me to stay on your good side, or at least 500 yards away.
Comment by Danny — March 18, 2008 @ 5:45 pm
Gunney Highway & Danny,
Your exchange was was, in my opinion, one of best I have seen on a blog in sometime. Heated to begin w/ (partitially due) to GH’s unique blend of healthy sketicism, political realism, and obviously no stranger to AL politics and Danny’s attempt to at least explain his dillemma about feeling “responsible” for Mo’s reponse to the Parlour’s inquiry while never losing his objectivity by allowing GH to respond in kind . . . for decades, I have been teaching this same kind of spirited exchange to my students . . . yours was always the type of exchange that epitomized what I would use as an example.
Thank you both, gentlemen.
Comment by Wild Blue Yonder — March 18, 2008 @ 9:24 pm
Mo is a Mormon …. so thats a NO go for MO!
The 5th district is not ready for anyone wearing Magical UnderWare!!!!
Comment by jim — March 20, 2008 @ 1:47 pm
Dr Parker Griffith was in D.C. yesterday/Wednesday talking to the big wigs.
Going to be tough to beat. mark my word.
Comment by jim — March 20, 2008 @ 1:52 pm
“He has run for office seven times already. No matter if that is a county commission or congressional race, all races take money and has a huge impact on one’s family. It seems as if he is trying to make it look like if he runs he is making a huge sacrifice and the voters should feel sorry for him.”
Have you ever run for office? kthxbai.
Comment by Anonymous — March 20, 2008 @ 3:28 pm
Hi Doc, and Mo, I’ll vote for you if you run. You may not want your sticker sitting next to the Obama 2008 sticker on my car though…
Comment by Sydney Gallaher — May 7, 2008 @ 1:44 pm