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The Spectacle Blog
Many thanks to Christopher Orlet for his take-down of Sen. David Vitter. Here's another Vitter story: In his first run for Congress, in a special election in 1999, his runoff opponent was former Gov. Dave Treen. Treen's grandson disappeared on a hike out in the mountain West during the final week of the campaign. Treen suspended the campaign to go help find his grandson; the presence of a former governor in the last week of a comeback campaign spurred tons of TV coverage, and a TV helicopeter spotted the grandson and the lad was rescued. Treen returned home two evenings before the election, exhausted -- only to find that while he was gone, flyers at least tacitly encouraged by the Vitter campaign had gone up all over the black neighborhoods purporting to tie Treen in with former KKK leader David Duke as an ally if not outright supporter. Blacks made up less than 10 percent of the district's voters, but in an extremely close race they amounted to the key "swing" vote. Sure enough, those fliers had a big effect: Vitter won those black neighborhoods overwhelmingly, and with that overwhelming proportion of the black votes he barely eked out the victory over Treen. Here's the really sick thing about it: Dave Treen had spent the entire decade of the 1990s publicly opposing and rebuking David Duke, courageously and with great effect. If any major Republican official did more than Treen did to stop Duke's political rise (by "major" I exclude a number of lesser party officials who did yeoman's work but didn't have the profile of a major office-holder), that would be news to me -- and I was there in the thick of the anti-Duke battle the whole time. Meanwhile, I would challenge anybody to come up with any significant anti-Duke statements or actions by Vitter, who lived in Duke's district and feared that outspoken opposition to Duke would hurt his own political career.
So, in essence, we had the self-protecting, not-Duke-opposing Vitter convincing uneducated black voters that the bravely and effectively anti-Duke Dave Treen actually was a closer Kluxer. It was one of the lowest blows I've ever seen in politics, made even lower by the fact that Treen had suspended his campaign to help save his grandson and returned too late to effectively respond to the smear.
That story provides yet another example of why Mr. Orlet's portrayal of Mr. Vitter's (lack of) character is dead solid perfect.
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More Blog Posts by Quin Hillyer
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Oldefarte| 6.2.09 @ 1:56PM
Only in Louisiana [or maybe in Chicago as well]! As a former resident, I vaguely remember Louisiana's Democrats running the political pristine Edwin Edwards [joke] against Republican David Duke, in order to save the state from embarrassment of elected a KKK grand dragon as governor. Ironically, conservatives in the southern state of Lousiana acted [many years ago] morally [by voting for and electing Edwards over Duke] to prevent a radical extremist from assuming the state's highest office; whereas today's liberals in the US did NOT so act in our last presidential election. And they politically chastise the south for its supposedly extremism ??? Amazing!
hmm_contrib| 6.2.09 @ 3:44PM
radical extremist
Words have commonly agreed upon meanings, as do labels. The percentage of people who think Duke was an extremist != the number of people who think the same of Obama. Given that Obama's approval ratings are somewhere in the 60s, your use of the term "radical extremist" to define Obama is fevered/wishful thinking, not analysis.
Otis, my man!| 6.2.09 @ 4:18PM
Perhaps Stormy Daniels is the better candidate after all!
Dan| 6.2.09 @ 4:42PM
Seems to me Quin that all you did was demonstrate that Vitter wants to win.
And when we're going against the creeps and cruds from the Chicago machine, ---------- Vitter and what he has to offer might be precisely what the Doctor ordered.
And as for him indulging himself of the women of the evening, ---------------- I don't give a damn.
Not one damn.
Where was Vitter on the immigration "reform" debate? Was he one of those in on the "bipartisan" deal, whereby both party's establishments tried to gang up on the American people, or was he with the people, doing his level best to prevent a despicable imposition of the establishment on America.
Where I come from, Vitter passes muster.
And losers as so many Republicans are, might do well to take a lesson from Vitter, {warts and all}.
Missy| 6.3.09 @ 12:42AM
I understand your point, Dan; but does he have to be a dirtbag? Vitter might win elections, but he's still a loser to me.
Oh, if I were his wife, I would've kicked his sorry a$$ across the state. He dishonored her!! I would hope that Conservative women are better than that.
Dan| 6.3.09 @ 12:02PM
Missy, and Quin too,
can beggers be choosers?
Our party is weighed down almost to the point of destruction with men who crave the meed of approval from an establishment, that effectively is at war with everything the grassroots of our party believes in.
This isn't the time or the place to indulge in some passion play regarding the sins of Vitter.
Where is Vitter on the key policy issuees of the day? That's what I want to know.
And as for the prostitutes, the situation has gotten so bad I'm just thankful that his private hankerings are at least hetero, rather than the freakish homo!
As for his wife, that woman has my sympathy. And if she wants to divorce him, that's up to her.
Missy| 6.3.09 @ 1:17PM
Character matters--at least to some of us.
Dan| 6.3.09 @ 11:48PM
And so is winning, that matters too.
And in some battles, not all mind you, but in some, nothing short of victory is tolerable.
Against the regime entrenched, against the creeps from Chicago, against a man who flaunts himself as some messianic figure, against them, and against far more than just them, ----------------- nothing less than victory can cut it.
We're in a battle for the very soul of our country.
And in such a battle, I'll take Vitter, for as Henry V said at Agincourt, "For he to-day that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother, be he ne'er so vile, this day shall gentle his condition....." If royalty can understand how an ecumenism of the trenches can enrobe the vile in virtue, what of us Christians who only desire to run down Vitter, even though Vitter is fighting for us, and doing so far more effectively than Quin.
I'm sorry, this is no time for Quin or any of us to indulge in moralistic flights of fancy.
We're in a fight with corrupt cutthroats, and somebody who understands their ways well is precisely what we need.
This isn't the political catwalk, where we all get to strut and flaunt our virturous garb. That's for losers.
Dan| 6.3.09 @ 11:50PM
Quin's comentary isn't simply in poor taste, it's politically clueless.
Veronica| 6.4.09 @ 12:49AM
If Vitter did it to his wife, he will do it to us. Just like Billy Boy Clinton.
We all know how that turned out.
I don't think Quin is the clueless one here.
links of london| 8.9.09 @ 12:30AM
Thank you very much!