There’s little worth writing about this morning. Even the Political Insider has resorted to an article about sparklers in the potential new city of Sandy Springs. In a thread below, I was prodded by Chris to run for office if I’m so pissed with some of the losers the Democratic Party put up last time (one in particular, but I’m not going to get into that here). It’s not going to happen in 2006 for a variety of reasons (not to mention I couldn’t even tell you what local races would be available to me off the top of my head), but I will tell you how candidate Rusty would answer questions from his antagonists and detractors:
- Q: What is your stance on the Terri Schiavo case? (couldn’t you just see the stupid media asking someone running for a lower local office a question like that first?)
A: While I feel it’s unfortunate for the families to have to endure the pain they have, I also don’t like the idea of the government stepping in to settle inter-family disputes. As a practical matter, it concerns a small percentage of the population — say five percent. I’m more concerned with answering questions that affect 100 percent of Georgians… questions like “Will I have a job when I wake up tomorrow?” or “If I come down with a serious illness, will paying for treatment bankrupt me?” - Q: What is your stance on abortion? (see snarky footnote from above)
A: I wouldn’t want my wife, girlfriend, or daughter to have one, but I generally prefer the government stay out of constituents’ bedrooms and boardrooms whenever possible. If we had better sex education, perhaps we wouldn’t have to ask the question as often as we do. - Q: You’re running as a Democrat, yet the key points of your platform are to curb unnecessary spending and lower taxes for property owners. Why aren’t you a Republican?
A: Historically, Democrats have demonstrated they want to regulate your wallet. Republicans have demonstrated they want to regulate your behavior. I’m not interested in adding more regulation in either case. - Q: Then why aren’t you a Libertarian?
A: Because raising money to run for office would be next to impossible as a Libertarian. - Q: What are you interested in?
A: Picking a few areas — such as first responders, education, infrastructure, and health care — and making them strong, and doing away with many of the rest. - Q: Won’t you just fall into the same trap of proposing last-minute pork projects to win cheap points with your constituents that everyone else falls into?
A: No, because I don’t care about having a long-term career in politics. A lot of people are going to be disappointed when I don’t bring home a bunch of statues and monuments and other superfluous items. They should be happy I’m not out spending their money like a drunken sailor on R&R in Thailand. If they’re not, they can vote for someone else next time.
Excellent! I especially like you’re last answer, because that’s how I would feel if I ever decided, god forbid, to run for office. I’d take money from issue oriented people I didn’t like, then vote against their asses. I’d speak my mind, do what I think is right. And I probably wouldn’t stay in politics very long doing that.
My favortie was the answer to the Libertarian question…so true…and so sad.
I think you absolutely can take money and vote against them. Why? Because certain areas of Georgia, like North Dekalb, love maverick legislators. It doesn’t really matter on which particular issue, some voters just like knowing that their legislator can’t be bought.
How long have you been cheating on your wife with your girlfriend?
No offense, but you need some practice at dealing with reporters.
(Quick answer to get you out of the doghouse: Your wife IS your girlfriend.)
Or “I have none of the above presently, so it’s all hypothetical to me.” If they really want to get that petty, it won’t be hard to come up with some parody ads to make them look dumber for doing so. I’d use comedy in my ads, which I have seen very little of around here.
Let the glorious campaign begin!
[...] You wrote a kind of jokey post a while back about running for office. Do you think it’ll ever happen for real? I pretty seriously doubt it, though I’d never say never…there’s a temptation in the place like the district I live in now to run just because it’s fucking embarrassing how bad the democratic candidate was…but there’s too much dirt on me floating around…if I ever did something like that, I have a couple of friends I think would make better candidates than me, and I’d try to recruit them and help them in a behind-the-scenes role [...]