Friday, August 1, 2008
A tip of the hat to Adam Holland for alerting me to an absolutely fascinating (in a Twilight Zone/train wreck sort of way) Democrat congressional race happening down in Connecticut. Incumbent Republican Christopher Shays will be facing a Democrat in November. The question is, which one?
Most likely it will be a fellow named Jim Himes who, without even looking into the numbers, appears to be well funded and supported by the mainstream. Just have a look at his web site and compare it to...
Democratic challenger...Lee Whitnum. A little investigating shows that Whitnum is a hoot...maybe even a pip. She appears to be running against both Himes and...wait for it...AIPAC...in equal proportions. Here's a taste from her Israel page:
..."Clearly Himes went to Israel for a standard one-sided AIPAC propaganda visit. He wasn't there long enough to do much else (only 48 hours). I would never have made such a pilgrimage. With the mistake of Iraq still going on, I believe it is best to keep all allies, and especially Israel, at arms length."
Whitnum felt that Himes was motivated by money.
"According to Senator James Abourezk (D-SD) in an article in the Christian Science Monitor, the propaganda trip usually follows a written pledge by the candidate to support Israel. If they agree to sign, the money flows in from thousands of AIPAC members individual donation worldwide. Basically candidates who refuse to sign allegiance risk being "Percyized" which is a well-known Washington term used to describe former Senator Charles Percy of Illinois who felt he lost his reelection because AIPAC funded his pro-Israel democratic rival...
Abourezk, you may recall, is the Hizballah supporting former Senator who founded the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. Listen though, that's the boring part.
Connecticut lefty blog My Left Nutmeg has what it calls a Voter's Guide to Lee Whitnum. It's a sort of child's garden of Lee Whitnum, and 'all you wanted to know about Lee Whitnum but were too smart to ask' type-a thing. She's even posted her own diaries on the site. See: Jim Himes Nazi Connecticut, by Lee Whitnum Candidate for Congress. It starts like this:
I went to bed a congressional candidate and I woke up to find myself in Jim Himes' version of Nazi, Germany; the powerful Himes has completely sown up the Internet media in my state. How did he do it? He wined and dined bloggers and reporters in his big Greenwich house. Your campaign donations at work?...
There's also: Lee Whitnum Returning Your Hired Assassin
Mike you may not be on Jim Himes' payroll now, but you were, or you are, on someone's payroll. You are a hired gun - a hatchet man. You will recall that I met you in front of the Civic Center. You were flashily dressed for a picnic and I knew as soon as I looked into your cold eyes that you were hired gun. The next day an article appeared on the DailyKos and I knew instantly that it was posted by you. Only a hired gun would make up such ugliness (see 10 below) and post it on a national website. No one else, none of us local folk, would have done that. So now you are moving on to some other congressional district, in Wisconsin or somewhere, and recapping to justify your time here. Hey Mike, guess what - you have no soul...
Oh, she also appears to have had a fling with our junior Senator and co-opted the experience into a fiction book inspired by the experience.
The primary will be on August 12th. This race is one to watch. Whitnum may be a dark horse, but stranger things have happened. If nothing else, Whitnum is certainly easier on the eyes than opponent Jim Himes, and on that basis alone, this blog endorses Lee Whitnum in the Democrat race for the Connecticut 4th Congressional District.
Update: Televised debate! Whitnum believes we should give the Taliban back their sovereign nation.
