Good ad, and accurrate. After all, Crawford himself calls for the privatization of social security on his facebook page and his flip flopping on the issue has been documented earlier in the year.

Causey needs to keep this up. I’ve been frank about my lack of enthusiasm for him as a candidate of late, and frankly, I don’t think I’m alone in that feeling. Chad doesn’t excite people and he’s gotten as far as he has because of his connection to Berry and his being perceived as the lesser of two evils. But to win, he’s going to need to set the terms of the debate. 9 times out of 10, you can tell who’s winning and losing by who’s framing the debate. To beat Crawford, Causey’s got to put him on the defensive, and he’s got to get Democrats excited about him. The best way to do that at this stage of the game? Beat Crawford like a drum.

There are several other things that Causey can turn into arrows in his quiver. If he wants to make social security an issue he ought to call Obama to fire Alan Simpson. That’s criticism of the President I could live with. And hell, it’s not like we haven’t tested out the name “Big Oil Rick” around this neck. And hey, test out Crawford’s commitment to eliminating the deficit-call for the end of the Bush tax cuts for the rich. There’s a host of issues that Causey can raise to set the debate and put Crawford on the defensive. If he doesn’t want to fall victim to the enthusiasm gap that’s terrorizing Democrats this year, he’s probably going to have to raise every single one of them.

A friend of mine who happened to be paying attention to KASU last week passed me this:

Last week on a KASU radio program hosted by news director Greg Chance, excerpts of comments made by Republican First Congressional District candidate Rick Crawford were aired. Crawford once again revealed his ignorance of the real world by twice stating that a benefit of the Iraq war was the creation of Kurdistan as a sovereign nation. If true, that would be news to the world, and not welcome news to the governments of Iraq, Turkey, and others. Of course, it is not true, and Rick Crawford was simply demonstrating his ignorance of the real world once again.

The creation of a sovereign Kurdistan hasn’t happened. Were it to happen, the Middle-East would explode. Neither the Iraqi government or Turkey, both being our allies, would take it sitting down. And they wouldn’t take it too well if a U.S. Congressman said something so stupid. International incidents have been started over less. I may not be the biggest Chad Causey fan right now but he’s looking a lot better by comparison to this idiocy. Causey better step it up-like Boozman, there’s no reason why any Democrat should be losing to this clown.

Yeah, I’m still on Causey’s case about his stupid comment regarding the President, and I’ll stay on it right up to November 2nd if I have to. That’s right-I’ll do a post on this every single day until he deals with this. Why? Because, I want Causey not only to win but to be the best possible candidate and Congressman that he can. The strategy he’s employing now makes him neither.

I’ve heard from several people that Chad was simply doing what he has to do to win. But here’s the flaw in that argument-that tired old strategy or running away from the Democratic President/the national party and running as a conservative Democrat DOESN’T WORK ANYMORE. Here’s why: To those of us in the party who are strong progressives or are committed to the party, it tells us that you’re using us and that we can’t trust you. To those who are more conservative or whatever, they’re just going to see that “D” after your name and say you’re trying to fool them. It creates a trust issue, and the whole exercise is so damaging, especially in the days of 24/7 media and blogs where little comments like this are easily captured and exploited, that it’s not worth engaging in. If Causey thinks that’s the best way to win, then he’s being stupid. If someone told him that was how he had to do it, then they gave him bad advice.

There’s a better way. The Blue Dogs and their conservatism/obstructionism is what has hurt the Democrats so bad in a cycle where they could have made gains in the beginning. Instead of running to the discredited right, make a populist, progressive argument. People are angry right now because nothing is getting done to turn the economy around (thanks again to Republicans and Blue Dogs) and because it’s increasingly obvious that big corporations and the wealthy own the government. Channel that anger and talk about people’s economic needs. Become a champion for the people. And when something will help them, make a case for it. In other words, be a leader.

That’s what I want to see Chad Causey be. A leader rather than a ‘fraidy cat…someone who will represent the people of this district and not the big corporate interests like Blanche Lincoln, Mike Ross, and yes, Marion Berry. As I’ve said, I will not lift a finger to help someone who is Wooldridge-lite or Crawford-lite after all the hard work we’ve been putting in against both of those two clowns. And I, for one, won’t keep my mouth shut either because I’m tired of seeing progressives who work their hearts out for Democrats be taken advantage of by them, especially when there’s a better path to victory.

So yeah, if Chad wants the continued help of the people who rallied behind him to beat Tim Wooldridge in the primary, he needs to take his foot out of his mouth and deal with this. He also needs to do something to get the base excited because it’s that enthusiasm gap that’s killing the Democrats right now. None of this is to say that Chad’s a bad guy or that we want Rick Crawford to win. On the contrary, he’s a good guy with a lot of potential who needs to step up his game so that we don’t end up dealing with Congressman Crawford next year.

There’s a newish Talk Business-Hendrix College poll out saying that Rick Crawford is beating Causey by 16 points.  Check out the crosstabs:

Age

 

 

7% Under the age of 40

29% Between the ages of 41 and 59

64% 60 or older

Talk Business writes that they checked these numbers again with a smaller sample and found similar results, though I don’t see that they have the crosstabs available on that.  Still, there’s only one thing these polls are telling us-old people vote and right now a lot of old timers in Arkansas are afraid that the black guy in the White House is going to sign them up for a death panel.  That’s not to say the polls are totally without merit-but they are skewed in the age demographic.

That said, I do think the Causey campaign needs to change its tactics.  They’ve been running almost an issueless campaign in the general, akin to the Marion Berry campaigns of the past, hence “Get ‘er done” and the truck.  When Causey has talked about the issues, he usually veered to the right, except on energy and social security and maybe a few other venues.  The Causey campaign needs to wake up and realize that the old Blue Dog strategy is on its way out forever.  If he wants to win this thing resoundingly, Causey needs to get people excited the way Bill Halter did, with a populist approach to economics, the people vs. the powerful.  He’s got it in him to do it, and he better get cracking.

And yeah I’ve heard there’s some stupid thing out about them going at it over where Crawford went to school and Republicans claiming Causey’s attacking military men or something.  Yeah, cut that stupid shit out and make Crawford defend the Republican stances that will hurt first district voters.

No I will not apologize for that title, because not only is it an accurate description it’s also a drop in the bucket compared to all the slanderous things Republicans said about Democrats while Bush was President, none of which had half the truth of the title statement.  Take what John Boozman said about the NYC mosque controversy:

America is a land of freedom and tolerance. However, it is also a land of respect and human dignity. Building an enormous 13-story, two-acre, $100 million mosque in the shadows of where the World Trade Towers once stood is not an everyday act of religious expression; it’s a self-evident act of provocation.

***

Put simply, the construction of the Ground Zero mosque is an insensitive, aggressive political statement whose principle purpose is to irritate the public and stoke controversy. Instead of acknowledging this reality, the President bought the activists’ plea for religious expression hook-line-and-sinker and caved to the winds of political correctness in support of the building.

Yeah, apparently being a Muslim means that your religion is somehow insincere and an insult to Americans or something.  Then there’s Rick Crawford:

 Congressional candidate and decorated army veteran Rick Crawford today chastised the Obama administration for failing to focus on creating jobs and stabilizing the failing economy, but having the time to weigh in on the wrong side of the proposed mosque at ground zero.

“It’s sad that the president isn’t working to create jobs and build back our economy, but instead is taking the time to weigh in on an issue that is extremely hurtful to thousands of still grieving families by becoming a proponent of building a mosque at the site where their family members died. It’s a shame and I wish the President would show more respect for our fallen countrymen”.

The proposed Mosque is has been a hotly debated issue for months and last week President Obama voiced his support for allowing it to be built just blocks from where thousands of Americans perished at the hands of Islamic extremists on September 11^th 2001.

The Crawford campaign also called on Democrat Chad Causey to repudiate Obama’s stand on the building of the mosque at the site of one of Americas greatest tragedies; “It’s time for Chad Causey to stand with America instead of the Obama-Pelosi administration. We are asking him to repudiate the sad choice by his leadership to support an extremist group over the families of the Americans that died. He needs to take this opportunity to let the people of Arkansas know where he stands on this issue, is it with the Washington Liberals or those who believe this action by the president is in poor taste?” said Crawford Campaign Manager Jonah Shumate.

Yeah, the people trying to build that mosque/community center are such extremists.  I mean, the Imam is actually helping the U.S. in its outreach efforts to the middle-east.  You don’t get more extremist than that, right?  Aside from Crawford’s ever present stupidity, it should scare the hell out of everyone that he thinks his military service somehow gives him the moral high ground on this issue.  We’re not talking about protecting America from a foreign enemy, we’re talking about the constitutional rights of Americans here.  When people start throwing their military cred around to justify their opposition to our constitutional rights, that’s a sign of a dangerous person who doesn’t need to be anywhere near public office in a free country.

What’s worse is, not only are Boozman and Crawford spitting on the Constitution here, they’re helping Al Qaeda in the process:

  McKINNON: Usually Republicans are forthright in defending the Constitution. And here we are, reinforcing al Qaeda’s message that we’re at war with Muslims. So we’ve got this issue; then we’ve got the 14th Amendment issue, where Republicans are saying you’re not welcome here, when we were the architects of the 14th Amendment. So, I see a bad pattern where we’re headed as a Republican Party.

That’s former Bush advisor Mark McKinnon by the way.  And he’s right.  Al Qaeda’s propaganda and recruitment efforts count on casting America as being at war with Islam, which we are not.  The kinds of things that Boozman and Crawford and so many other Republicans are saying here are almost tailored to work as Al Qaeda talking points, providing a ready example for terrorist lies that America really is at war with all Muslims, not just Al Qaeda and co.  So, the next time you bump into Crawford or Boozman, thank them for giving Osama Bin Laden a helping hand.

Rick Crawford can’t escape from his past bankruptcies, but as I’ve been saying it’s not so much the actual bankruptcy that’s the issue.  It’s his credibility.

Who cannot feel some sympathy for Rick Crawford, whose race for Congress in east Arkansas, including Lonoke County, unlocked some unfortunate past — that he had run up a lot of credit as a young man and got the government to relieve him of the debt? It happens to too many of us. But who cannot feel disappointment, even anger, that he would try to mislead people about what he had done?

He asks people to trust him to represent them responsibly and to tell them the truth about all things public and private, which is the very nature of representative democracy. And he fails the first small test.

Like I’ve said in the past, if Crawford had acknowledged all this from the start things wouldn’t be looking so bad for him right now.  And he’s made it much worse by continuing his stonewalling.

Crawford owned up to the bankruptcy, but he said he had eventually repaid every dime of the debts. But the newspaper reporter did not take him at his word and began to check with creditors. There was a hospital in Columbia, Mo., that he had not paid for surgery and a hospital stay in 1993. When the reporter called University of Missouri Health Care, Crawford had already called to check on the status of his debt. The hospital told the reporter it was forbidden to disclose a patient’s records, even the status of his debt, without a waiver signed by Crawford. He refused to waive his privacy right.

But later he did. The hospital was given permission to disclose only one thing, which was whether at this moment Crawford still owes the hospital. The hospital said that right now he doesn’t owe anything. It could not say when he had paid the bill.

Crawford refuses to say whether he paid the bill this summer after questions were raised and after he had insisted that he had long ago repaid his debts. A campaign aide of the candidate said that was all he was ever going to say about the matter.

So yeah, Crawford owned up to the bankruptcy after hiding it for as long as he could.  Now, he’s paid his debts, but he won’t say when he paid them.  Remember, this is the man who said  ”If people ran their personal finances the way Congress does, they would be in jail.”  So come on Rick, fess up.  When did you pay your debts?  If we’re going to elect you, we need to know that we can trust you.  So far, you’re proving to be nothing but a liar.

By the way, the Arkansas Leader article suggests that this will probably all blow over.  I don’t think it will.  The bankruptcy story is, as they rightly point out, only one part of the story.  Rick Crawford has a truth problem, and I’d bet good money that it’s only going to get worse as more stories come out.

Chad Causey rolled out a couple of endorsements today from former Mike Huckabee officials:

1st District Congressional candidate Chad Causey announced the endorsement of John Ed Regenold and Mike Freeze to his candidacy, adding to the list of supporters who have endorsed his campaign.

“I’m honored to have the support of two committed public servants like John Ed Regenold and Mike Freeze,” Causey said. “Arkansans across the 1st District, Democrats, Republicans, and Independents alike, agree with my message that we need to create jobs here in Arkansas, protect Social Security and Medicare, and pay down the federal deficit.”

John Ed Regenold, of Armorel, was appointed by former Arkansas Governor and Presidential contender Mike Huckabee to serve on the Arkansas Highway Commission for a 10 year term. In addition to his public service, Regenold is the Chairman of the Armorel Planting Company and is a past member of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.

“I’ve known Chad for years, and he has the energy and integrity to bring Arkansas values to Washington,” Regenold said. “Chad will reign in federal spending and do what’s right for Arkansans.”

Mike Freeze, of England, was appointed by Governor Huckabee to serve a seven year term on the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission in July of 1999. Freeze served as Chair of the AGFC during his last year of service and currently owns and operates Keo Fish Farms.

“Chad is ready to get the job done for the people of the 1st District,” Freeze said. “He has the experience to hit the ground running on day one in office and the commitment to stand up for Arkansas families.”

Regenold and Freeze join a long list of supporters that includes President Bill Clinton, Congressman Marion and Carolyn Berry, and former Democratic primary opponents State Representative David Cook and State Representative Steve Bryles.

Tolbert more or less dismissed these endorsements:

These two are far from die hard Republicans. Both have donated heavily to Democratic candidates (Freeze and Regenold) over the years with Republican donations sprinkled throughout. They have given to Democrats including Sen. Blanche Lincoln, Sen. Mark Pryor, Rep. Marion Berry, and former President Bill Clinton.

These endorsements actually do more to highlight Huckabee’s Democrat leaning appointments more than anything else.

So they’re not real Republicans anymore than Terry Green and the folks that worked for Tim Wooldridge, who reportedly used to brag about his support for Mike Huckabee and George Bush.  Crawford, for his part, returned fire with this endorsement:

First District Congressional candidate, United States Army veteran, and agri‐business owner Rick Crawford announced his newest coalition – Democrats for Crawford. Dewaine Malone, of Lake City, will be the chairman. Malone, who is a lifetime Democrat, says the liberal agenda in Washington is out of control and out of touch.

“I have been a registered Democrat all my life and the people in Washington are too liberal and out of touch with the folks here in Arkansas,” said Malone. “While I will continue to support Democrats locally, I believe we need someone in Washington that can stand up to Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama’s agenda.”

Yeah, sounds like a real Democrat to me…

This race will not turn on endorsements, even if Tim Wooldridge decideds to get up and endorse one or the other.  Most voters don’t care.  They’re concerned about how to put food on the table and about who’s going to work for them in Washington.  It will be the candidate that works his butt off shaking hands and who can put out the best message.  So far Chad Causey has been dominating the ground game, covering huge stretches of the district.  His campaign hit the ground running after the primary and hasn’t stopped.  Crawford, in the meantime, has left a lot of people on the ground here wondering where he is.  He’s counting on these endorsements and hiding in his bunker from the press, a losing strategy if there ever was one.

As for the messaging, Causey needs to talk about how he can help the people of this district as a Congressman and draw a difference with Crawford on the role of government.  He’s good at that.  For the most part, Causey has positioned himself as another Blue Dog, but his ability to talk about the positive role government can play sets him apart and is really one of his best qualities.  If he can channel that into a populist message then he’ll be good.  What he doesn’t need to do is try to be Republican-lite.  Democrats that run that way have been thoroughly discredited.  Just ask Blanche Lincoln.

Chad Causey, standing up for seniors:

Jonesboro native and first-time candidate Chad Causey signed a pledge to protect Social Security at an event today at the Jonesboro Senior Life Center, promising to always stand up for Arkansas seniors and to always oppose efforts that will privatize the system and cut benefits.

 “Today, I pledge my unwavering commitment to protecting Social Security and standing up for hard-working Arkansans who deserve the benefits they have been promised,” Causey said. “For 75 years now, Social Security has been a bedrock promise. Arkansans have earned it with a lifetime of hard work, and it should be there for them and future generations.”

 According to the Social Security Office of Policy Data, over 159,000 Arkansans in the 1^st District receive Social Security benefits, more than any other district in Arkansas. Today, nine out of ten seniors receive Social Security benefits and more than one-third of our seniors rely solely on Social Security to pay their bills and buy groceries.

 “I’m here to make clear that I will stand up against the plans of some to privatize Social Security and turn this program over to Wall Street,” Causey said “We saw what happened to people’s retirement accounts as the stock market collapsed, and we won’t let them do that to your Social Security.”

 The Social Security Act was signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on August 14, 1935 to lift the elderly out of poverty and provide a way to help seniors make ends meet. Without Social Security, more than 50 percent of American seniors would be living in poverty.

 Causey visited with seniors after the event and everyone enjoyed birthday cake commemorating the 75^th anniversary of the passing of Social Security.

A big part of Marion Berry’s success in the 1st was keeping seniors in his coalition.  Causey seems to have learned that lesson, and it ads up to one more thing that distinguishes him from Rick Crawford.  Crawford, you’ll recall, has flip flopped on the issue of privatizing social security in the past.  This just gives Causey one more bit of ammunition to unload on him.  So, think Crawford wants to keep putting all his eggs in the Tim Wooldridge basket?

You know, apparently AR-01 is a tossup.  At least that’s what Real Clear Politics is saying:

The big question is whether voters will believe that the Democratic nominee, former Berry Chief of Staff Chad Causey, is sufficiently conservative. As of this writing, defeated Democratic primary candidate Tim Woolridge still has not endorsed the more liberal Causey, a divide that could cause problems in the general election. Republicans are high on farm broadcaster Rick Crawford’s chances here. 

Okay, one question…more liberal on what?  Causey didn’t beat Wooldridge by running to his left…he beat him by being sane and not scary.  Between the hanging bill, Families First Foundation and the Family Council video, and the vote against tax breaks for soldiers, Causey just happened to be the much more tolerable of two conservative Democrats, a similar situation to what he’s in now.

Now, I said at one point that this race was much closer than people thought back when others were essentially assuming it leaned towards Causey.  Well, the talking heads apparently caught up with that analysis, but I think they’re several steps behind.  By now, Causey has everything he needs to bury Crawford, who hasn’t had a lot of good press of late.  However, Crawford and his fellow Republicans are trying to manufacture the illusion of momentum.  First it was through the fact that Wooldridge hasn’t endorsed, as if the whole first district hinges on every word that falls from Tim Wooldridge’s mouth.  Then it was over those three stooges from the Wooldridge campaign joining the Crawford team, as if that mattered any.  Then it was over the endorsment of the fringy and eccentric Terry Green who’s campaign wasn’t even a blip on the radar in the primary.  Now, it’s the endorsment of some old guy who was apparently running as an independent.  The thing is, despite living in the district and being very plugged in to what goes on here politically, I have never even heard of this guy.  I’m sure it will help Crawford tremendously…

I am curious about one thing here.  Just how much time have these talking heads spent in Arkansas, much less the 1st district?  And what kind of data do they have to show that Tim Wooldridge’s lack of endorsement is hurting Causey or that Causey is percieved as being out of step with the district?  I’m guessing none on both counts.  But anyway, I’ll have more to say about all this in the next post.

I do hope this gives Chad Causey a lesson though.  He’s spent his whole campaign running as a conservative Democrat, going so far as to run against health care reform when his old boss was still supporting it.  Yeah, it didn’t exactly help him avoid that liberal label now did it?  It’s a lesson for him and Democrats everywhere-we will get called liberal no matter what we do, so we might as well embrace it.  Remember how in the senate race Bill Halter’s left leaning, populist campaign performed excellently in AR-01 despite it being Blanche Lincoln’s home turf?  Hell, he did better here in the runoff than he did in the initial primary, even as he lost ground in the second and fourth district.  And it’s no coincidence that David Cook started to surge after he got some exposure here on Blue Arkansas.  The primary electorate was hungry for a real Democrat.  Had he had more money and more time, he’d be the nominee right now.  A progressive populist could clean up in this district and in the fourth as well.  There’s no excuse for having to put up with Blue Dogs here in Arkansas, regardless of what the talking heads say.

It’s no secret that Tim Wooldridge is angry about some of the things that were said and done in the primary and subsequent runoff.  Most of the things he’s upset about are probably the doing of those of us at Blue Arkansas.  I don’t think he likes Chad Causey all that much, but my guess is that he still grumbles more about us than him, even if he is taking his anger out on Chad by withholding his endorsement.  Still, while we did a lot to defeat Tim Wooldridge because of his position on gay issues, health care reform, the Employee Free Choice Act, the stimulus, etc., and those things did a lot to line up the Democratic base against him, the final blow to his campaign wasn’t delivered by us or any of the Democrats (though Bill Clinton’s endorsement helped a lot in this case).  In the end though, it was information the Republicans dug up that gave Chad Causey the ability to tip the scales in his favor, which said, among other things:

Sensing a momentum shift as third-place primary finisher David Cook endorsed his runoff opponent, Tim Wooldridge launched remarkably personal attacks on Chad Causey last week.

First, Wooldridge attacked Causey for being too young.

“Wooldridge said he thinks his combination of experiences, including being a father and husband, will trump Causey. ‘My opponent isn’t married and doesn’t have kids,’ Wooldridge said. ‘I’ve changed diapers and put training wheels on a bike.’” (George Jared, “Wooldridge, Causey work toward runoff,” Paxton News Bureau, 5/22/10)

***

It’s true that Causey’s young – he was just a teenager in the mid-1990s. But at least he wasn’t voting in favor of higher taxes on our troops, like Wooldridge was at the time:

“Democratic lieutenant governor candidate Tim Wooldridge defends a vote against increasing a tax exemption for military service members as necessary during tight budgetary times…That is being targeted in a new television ad by Wooldridge’s rival for the party’s lieutenant governor nomination, Bill Halter…The ad cites Wooldridge’s vote in 2005 against a proposal to raise the amount of military pay exempt from state income taxes from $6,000 to $9,000. The ad also cited measures Wooldridge unsuccessfully proposed in 1993 and 1995 to cut the salaries of state employees while they are on National Guard duty.” (Andrew DeMillo, “Democrats blast at each other in Ark. Lt. Gov. runoff,” Associated Press, 6/9/06)

Then, Wooldridge attacked Causey for having “lived off the government” and not having “had real-life jobs.”

“As the primary season closes June 8, Wooldridge said he hopes voters choose someone like them — him. ‘I haven’t lived off the government for the last 10 years, I’ve had real-life jobs,’ he said.” (George Jared, “Wooldridge, Causey work toward runoff,” Paxton News Bureau, 5/22/10)

In 16-year politician Tim Wooldridge’s world, being a highly-paid lobbyist qualifies as a “real-life job.”

At the time, I said, correctly, that Republicans were trying to influence the goings on in the Dem primary and that voters should screen them out and vote for Causey on the merits.  They no doubt thought that Causey would be the easier candidate to beat, especially if they could accomplish their dream of getting Wooldridge to get on board with the Republicans, something they’ve been wanting since the days of Mike Huckabee.  I think they were wrong-had Wooldridge been the candidate, there would have been a lot of us Democrats that wouldn’t be enthused about the prospect of having to chose between Crawford and Wooldridge, especially with a Green Party option on the ballot to register a protest vote with.  But when Causey ran with it, Wooldridge famously attacked the Blue Hog Report for making it up, when A) the stuff said in it was true, and B) the whole thing originated with the Republicans.  So, Republicans gave Democrats an assist in the runoff to beat Tim Wooldridge and now they’re trying to coax him into endorsing Crawford.  In other words, the Republicans are attempting to play Wooldridge like a fiddle.  (One has to wonder if it’s a coincidence that his staff didn’t make it clear to him that it was the Republicans who put that out when now three of his former staffers are on the Crawford team.)

Now, personally, I’m not worried about who Wooldridge endorses or if he endorses at all.  I think things like that only matter to the talking heads.  I mean, think about it.  Conservative Wooldridge supporters had even less reason to back Bill Halter in 2006 who is far more liberal than Chad Causey has ever claimed to be.  It was Halter, after all, that first called Wooldridge to the mat over his hanging bill and was campaigning on the lottery that the conservative church going crowd hates so much.  I don’t even recall Wooldridge endorsing Halter, or at least not doing it enthusiastically, but I could be wrong on that.  Still, at the time, the fear was that Halter would be beaten by Holt and that Wooldridge was a better matchup.  Halter not only crushed Holt, but he outperformed Mike Beebe’s victory in the Governor’s race.  That, more than anything, should tell progressive minded Democrats not to worry so much about the conventional wisdom or what the talking heads say.

So yeah, let Wooldridge endorse whoever the hell he wants-in the end, it probably won’t matter much.  But Republicans are clearly trying to manipulate him, so before he does this, maybe he ought to ask himself how much he enjoys being used.

Did you hear?  Democrats are fleeing Chad Causey in droves!  There’s a huge split in the Democratic Party because Tim Wooldridge can’t get over his hurt feelings and fragile ego!  Chad Causey, despite being conservative on almost everything, is too liberal for the district!  Rick Crawford is going to surge!  It’s the end of the world for Democrats!

The evidence?  Why, just this week, four…yes, FOUR “Democrats” endorsed Rick Crawford!  With such an enormous number of people stampeding his way, how can Crawford lose?  I mean, he got Terry Green!  That’s right, TERRY GREEN!  Who’s Terry Green?  Uhh….oh yeah, he was that old guy that ran in the Democratic primary.  That means he could swing all the counties he won to Crawford!  Wait, Terry Green didn’t win any counties?  Not even his own?  Well he still came in a very distant third there and still ran a strong last or second to last place in all the counties he doesn’t live in!  Democrats should be terrified!

And hey, let’s not forget those three people that used to work for Tim Wooldridge!  They even joined his campaign!  Think about it-after all they did for a candidate with near universal name recognition in the district and a huge fundraising base, imagine how much they can do for Rick Crawford!  Seriously, the Causey campaign must be absolutely terrified that the Crawford team hired such shitty campaign workers!

But seriously, FOUR PEOPLE!  That’s an ENORMOUS number of Democrats desserting Causey!  Why that’s the same number of people that the Republican establishment went through before they had to settle on Crawford!  (Davey Carter, Johnny Key, Mickey “Stubby” Stumbaugh, and the ill fated campaign of Princella Smith)  And that’s not counting the legions of unhappy Tim Wooldridge supporters in the 1st!  Remember in 2006 how after the runoff they all swung the 1st district dramatically against Bill Halter and elected Lieutenant Governor Holt?

Seriously with all that against Causey, how could he possibly win?  I mean, it’s not like Rick Crawford is a total hypcrite or is hiding something or has some criminal Texas oil company with eyes on the Fayetteville Shale funding his campaign or anything.  So with no obvious flaws like those how could he possibly lose?

The reporters are calling and Rick Crawford is hiding under his desk.

When he was 28 years old, Crawford filed for bankruptcy to discharge about $12,000 in debts, the Democrat-Gazette reported last week.  He has been a firebrand on the stump for fiscal responsibility in Congress.

As we pointed out last Thursday, Crawford, 44, provided additional information on discharging his debts to our content partner, The Tolbert Report.  Crawford’s campaign provided this quote to Tolbert:
“Rick made good on all his obligations but was struggling for a while. It was tough on him,” said Jonah Shumate, Campaign Spokesman for Crawford for Congress. “But, by the grace of God, he went on to start a small business and grow it in to a success that has created jobs for Arkansans in the First District and helped farmers.”

The Democrat-Gazette follows up on that remark about repayment, which was not in their original story, but the Crawford campaign has been uncooperative according to the state’s largest daily newspaper.

“Republican congressional hopeful Rick Crawford has blocked efforts by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette to verify his claim that he paid back more than $12,000 in bankruptcy debts,” states the paper’s lede.

It’s like I said before, Crawford and his cohorts have been going out of his way to hide this stuff leaving his would be constituents to ask what else he might be hiding.  Remember, this is a guy who thinks:

 If people ran their personal finances the way Congress does, they would be in jail.

Putting aside what a Congressman Crawford might mean for poor folks struggling to pay bills (you know, the ones being locked up unconstitutionally), is Crawford willing to reveal whether or not he’s one of those that belongs in jail?  In typical Republican fashion…probably not.  It’s apparently riling a few Republicans.  Crawford’s former primary rival has already called it troubling according to the Talk Business article and from what I’m hearing other Republicans are starting to squirm.

As a side note, I’ve dealt with the reporter in question, Charlie Frago, at one point in the past.  It’s no secret that I have a great deal of distate for the Arkansas Democrat Gazette and cynicism about reporters in general, but this guy is one of the good ones.  He’s very thorough and dots all the i’s and crosses the t’s.  He’s a good journalist I think, and that’s really hard to find.  My guess is that Crawford could do as a lot of other Republicans had done by giving the friendly media outlit of the Tolbert Report his side of the story and get Jason to write something up defending him and that would be that.  Apparently though real journalism still exists, much to Crawford’s displeasure.

Tolbert has Rick Crawford’s side of the bankruptcy story, and it looks like Crawford and the Republicans are largely missing the point.  Several actually.  Before I get into that, the first thing that caught my eye was this:

Charlie Frago with the Arkansas Democrat Gazette reports on a story that has been floating around Republican circles for sometime now. As Frago reports, Republican candidate for the First Congressional District Rick Crawford filed for bankruptcy some 16 years old, for $12,611.67 of debts including $7,500 in credit card debt and $4,200 in medical bills.

If you read the comments, you find one or two that suggest they think this is news from nowhere.  In otherwords, Republicans had heard about this and were trying to sit on it, and now that it’s out they’re trying to dismiss it.  Now we get to one of the points they’re missing.  Crawford’s campaign responds:

“Rick made good on all his obligations but was struggling for a while. It was tough on him,” said Jonah Shumate, Campaign Spokesman for Crawford for Congress. “But, by the grace of God, he went on to start a small business and grow it in to a success that has created jobs for Arkansans in the First District and helped farmers.”

The sympathy card aside, the Crawford campaign seems to be thinking that the issue is that Crawford’s unfit to serve because he racked up what is, by today’s standards, a relatively small debt.  That’s not the point though.  Filing for bankruptcy doesn’t make you a bad person-abusing it does.  And even then, Crawford would probably still be in the clear (though you could debate whether or not bankruptcy is the appropriate answer to less than thirteen thousand dollars in debt).  Tolbert’s piece continues:

Unfortunately, bankruptcy is fairly common nowadays but the point being raised by many is does this put a cloud over Crawford anti-deficit position.  A major part of his campaign is the argument – which I agree with – that the country is engaging in too much deficit spending. The Crawford campaign says that it does not damage this position and actually argues just the opposite.

“Rick’s story is the story of many Arkansans in the First District and shows that we need a common-sense small businessman in Washington to get our country back on track. Rick certainly does not want our country to go through what he personally had to go through over 15 years ago,” said Shumate.

That would have been a great argument to make…if he had done it from the start.  The fact that Crawford sat on this for so long while harping on the deficit with it lurking beneath the surface waiting for a reporter to dig it up shows that he, at best, felt no need to talk about this in the first place and, at worst, felt the need to cover it up.  The fact that there are Republicans, including Jason, essentially saying that they already knew about this suggests that they were of the same line of thinking.  Now if Crawford tries to alter his deficit argument it won’t help him any.  He already looks like he had something to hide, and if he tries running with this it’s going to look like he made it up on the spot to save his campaign.  And it begs the question.  What else is he hiding?

On top of that, there’s the issue of total hypocricy on Crawford’s part.  He escapes into bankruptcy to avoid paying a relatively small amount of medical bills, back when you could do so.  Now, thanks to the last Republican Congress, if you file bankruptcy due to medical bills you still have to pay.  Hell, you can even lose your home.  Imagine that-you’re paying bills for your cancer treatments, can’t keep up with them all because the insurance companies found a way to eliminate coverage and then BAM, you’re out on the streets.  The health care reform passed by Congress this year, while not a perfect solution by any means, goes a long way to deal with the problem of people slipping through the cracks.  Crawford is against the bill and jumped on the repeal bandwagon pretty quick.  In other words, he wants to deny other Americans access to the safety net that he himself enjoyed.

On top of all that, Crawford, for all his huffing and puffing, is yet to prove that he’s really serious about reducing the deficit.  For one thing, Obama’s health care reform is on track to reduce the deficit significantly, and Crawford still wants to repeal it.  Nevermind the fact that if he, or anyone for that matter, was really serious about eliminating the deficit he’d call for letting the Bush tax cuts for the rich expire on schedule because, as we’ve established, those tax cuts are a huge part of the deficit problem, right up there with Bush’s two wars and the bad economy he and the Republicans created for us.  In other words, Crawford deserves the title of “deficit peacock”.

So, all in all, Crawford has had a really bad day.  Between all this and the oil company ties that the Blue Hog Report dug up and his social security flip flop way back in the primary, Causey has enough to bury him.  Personally, I think Chad should kick up the campaign starting tomorrow and look for any excuse Crawford gives him to come out guns blazing.  That way, we can get Causey into a firm lead and focus time and resources on the much tougher fight in the second district.

On the heels of the bankruptcy story, the Blue Hog Report has dug into Crawford’s campaign contributors and found a rather telling name in the mix.

Who is Trevor Rees-Jones, you ask? He’s the president of Chief Oil & Gas, LLC, out of Dallas, Texas. He is also, to date, the largest contributor to Karl Rove’s little pet PAC project, American Crossroads.

Now, remember, he’s called Big Oil Rick for a reason. First there was his “drill baby drill” statement:

I support the immediate repeal of all limitations on oil and gas development on the Outer Continental Shelf. Each area should be surveyed for domestic resources, environmental protections should only be reimposed where warranted, and the revenues from lease sales and production should be used to pay down the national debt.

Then there was the video he made with the family council:

Now, if his statements weren’t enough, the Blue Hog boys have found the proof that big oil is looking at Crawford as an investment. What’s that matter to AR-01 though, right? So what if he drills up the coast and ANWR and all those other distant places. What’s that got to do with us?

Hmm … a guy whose oil & gas company has a ton of violations while drilling for natural gas in Pennsylvania shale donates to the Republican candidate for Congress in another state from the congressional district that has the majority of that state’s shale gas plays? Interesting.

That’s right. This guy’s company, Chief Oil and Gas, has done a ton of ecological damage in other states. Now they’ve got their eyes on the Fayetteville Shale, which stretches across northern Arkansas into the 1st district. In other words, Rick Crawford is now the go to guy for this company to start drilling up north east Arkansas, and if they get to put him in Congress they’ll have their go to guy to help them ruin our drinking water, our hunting and fishing, the soil we farm, and our health.

At this point, Chad Causey has enough to bury Crawford in November if he acts. This man cannot make it to Congress, otherwise the 1st may well be facing it’s own BP disaster in the future. This is an area where Chad, a well spoken advocate for clean energy, can draw a dramatic difference between himself and Big Oil Rick…for all our sakes.

Apparently, Rick Crawford is far from being the Republican salvation in AR-01.  Rather, he’s just another Republican hypocrite.  Exhibit A:

The Democrat-Gazette reported this morning that deficit hawk Rick Crawford, the Republican candidate for 1st District Congress, declared personal bankruptcy in 1994 to dodge credit card and medical debts. (Of course he opposes health coverage help for the country’s lame and impoverished, too.)

Much is being made of what Crawford has said on his website:

If businesses in America spent money the way the federal government does, they would be in bankruptcy.  If people ran their personal finances the way Congress does, they would be in jail.

Never mind the fact that jailing people for debt is unconstitutional…but if we get into Crawford’s knowledge of the Constitution we’ll be here all day.  That said, what’s really striking to me is the fact that this guy’s debt largely centered around medical bills (and the credit card debt, which may or may not be related-I don’t know).  The funny thing is that there would be reason to sympathize with him IF he hadn’t made such a big deal out of opposing health care reform which will help Americans avoid a similar situation to Crawford, medical bills being the number one cause of bankruptcy in America.

So yeah, on Crawford’s two big issues, he just lost any ounce of credibility that he might have had.