New Year's Resolutions for Gordon Smith
Kari Chisholm
It's January 1st, and many of us have made resolutions for the coming year.
I wonder what Gordon Smith resolved to do?
Will he resolve to campaign honestly this year, unlike he did in 2002?
Will he stop contradicting himself and bending the facts? (In the last six months, both of Oregon's largest newspapers (the O and the R-G) have criticized Smith for trying to bamboozle Oregonians.)
Will he stop voting 90 percent of the time with President Bush?
Will he actually work to get our troops out of Iraq? We're now more than one year after Smith said he would oppose the war. Yet, unlike Ron Wyden, Smith continues voting to keep troops in Iraq and prolong the Iraq War.
Of course, since it's unlikely that Gordon Smith will actually do any of those things, what's your New Year's resolution? How will you work to make 2008 Gordon Smith's last year in the U.S. Senate?
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Jan 1, '08
May I add that Gordon Smith should also resolve for 2008 to stop having his company pollute the environment by dumping wastewater into nearby creeks, something he has been fined for at least three times!
10:49 a.m.
Jan 1, '08
We should all make defeating Smith one of our own resolutions. It is our biggest chance to influence the national political context.
We get to vote for 1.3% of the presidential electors, but 3% of the senators up for grabs in 2008. That proportion goes up if we focus on the much smaller number of senate seats seen as seriously in play. This comet doesn't come around again until 2014.
Increasing the Democratic minority in the senate can have a significant impact on the political and policy-making context in Washington. It can reduce the capacity for Republican obstructionism and increase the political space for more progessive senators to press for tougher, smarter strategies from Senate and House leadership, particularly on the occupation of Iraq.
Seizing this opportunity also means resolving personally and influencing our preferred candidates campaigns to pursue the nomination in May with eyes on November. No slash and burn, no scorched earth.
Smith's seat is seen by national handicappers as sort of marginally in play. They're not quite sure.
It's up to us to put Smith's seat unquestionably at risk, and to win it, in 2008.
Jan 1, '08
Jack Roberts resolves to show up here in response to every anti-Gordo entry of 2008 and say, "Ha-ha, if that's the best you can bring up against Smith, he'll have an easy time getting a third term for sure", or words to that effect.
Jan 1, '08
SAVE DEMOCRACY, VOTE FOR A DEMOCRAT!!
I know what Gordon's New Year's resolution will be!
Too decide which lobbying firm will pay the most, and has the best Redskin/Wizard seats. Life after the Senate is where the real money is, and heck, a Senator has real influenance after leaving office in the politics of today.
For Gordon Smith, his loyalty to the Neo-Con, and the RNC along with his willingness to compromise his every principle to keep power makes him the ultimate in Republican Insider in this new American Fascism!
It's so good to be rich in America, so good to be a Republican Senator with an job that will pay ya till ya die for just having been a good Republican.
Happy Thoughts;
Dan Grady
Jan 1, '08
It's becoming clear when you read the Oregonian - like yesterday 12/31 - and see an anti-Bush tirade at the top of the Editorial page of such a pro-Republican paper; that the tide has turned. Smith is not polling well, we have strong candidates to run against him - the writing is on the wall.
And that worries me some. Not only Smith, but the current Republican power group can read that writing on the wall.
What will they do (to all of us) on the way out?
2:56 p.m.
Jan 1, '08
And a happy New Year to you too, Steve! :-D
If only I thought you were wrong to worry ... Well, even if the Dem controlled congress isn't making so much positive headway, at least they should be able block much lame-duck nefariousness.
7:36 p.m.
Jan 1, '08
For those of you having trouble making a resolution, may I suggest you join you county Democratic Party and apply to become a Precinct Committee Person (aka Precinct Leader)? Put your money where your mouth is, buy comfy walking shoes and help organize your neighborhood to win every Democratic seat there is. Visit http://www.washcodems.org/Party_links for a list of links to almost every county in the State, sign up, attend the meetings, take charge and become an organizational lightning rod to ensure a decisive Oregon win in November.
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