THERE IS ONLY ONE DEMOCRATIC ALTERNATIVE TO MARK FOLEY AND THAT'S DAVE LUTRIN

You may know Adam as the head of the DWT Art Department. He's based in the West Palm Beach area and is a student at PBCC; he and Sadie and Sophie have a Zohar study-group and occasionally stop long enough to do an art piece or two. Because S & S are much older than Adam-- older even than his grandmother-- they fell into Katherine Harris' trap and wound up voting for Pat Buchanan instead of what they once called "that nice Jewish boy Joe Lieberman." (An aside: they have come to loathe Lieberman and recognize him for the right-wing loon he's turned into and it was Sophie who came up with the wonderful Ned Lamont artwork we use on this blog.) Anyway, a couple days ago Adam and Sophie took their lives in their hands by piling into Sadie's 1981 Buick and driving over to what they thought would be a debate between David Lutrin, a progressive Democrat and Tim Mahoney, a countryclub Republican with a newly minted Democratic registration. Adam, who is extremely late on 5 pieces of art, somehow found the time to write up his first-hand impressions of Lutrin and Mahoney, the winner of whose primary battle will face off against the extremely dishonest, and extremely entrenched, Republican hack Mark Foley. Adam, take it away...

Last Thursday in Florida’s District 16 race, there was supposed to be a Candidate’s Forum between David Lutrin and Tim Mahoney. The agreed upon format was that each candidate would address the audience for an unspecified amount of time and then both candidates would take any and all questions together. It didn’t happen that way. Several hours before the forum, a member of Mahoney’s campaign called the host of the forum and said that Mahoney had to absolutely be out of the forum by 7:45 pm, due to another commitment and wanted to change the format. The new format was for Baloney Mahoney to speak first, then take a few questions and disappear, leaving the remainder of the forum for Lutrin.

At 8:05 pm (20 minutes after Full-of-Baloney Mahoney had to absolutely be out of the Forum) a member of the audience told Mahoney “you haven’t told us where you stand on any of the issues (after speaking for 50 minutes) , where do you stand on abortion, gun control, and capital punishment?"

Mahoney’s response was that he stood where the district stood on the issues. Specifically, on abortion he said “in this room, I am pro-choice, here."

Being pro-choice in one room is not good enough, because hearsay is that he already told the rural community in the district that he is anti-choice. Sadie was getting wrestless and I was hoping she wouldn't say anything embarrassing. She's old but she's very passionate and outspoken and holds public officials to a high standard. She baked a pie to throw at Katherine Harris once but we ate it.

Anyway, obviously full of baloney, Mahoney finally did leave at 8:10 and Lutrin took control of the room. With confidence and conviction he was crystal clear on the issues.

He said that we need to get out of Iraq, now. He pointed out that Bush created a terrorist haven where one never existed. The longer that we stay there, the more instability we create in the region and, contrary to what is being reported now, the civil war started a long time ago.

He supports single-payer universal healthcare in the U.S. Sadie started cheering and Sophie said she was going to give Lutrin a dollar for his campaign but we explained that the (Democratic) candidates don't take cash and that she'd have to do it through the DWT ACT BLUE Page.

Lutrin also wants to repeal the “No Child Left Behind Act” because it is a system of punishment for underprivileged schools rather than a remedy for what ails them. He wants to de-emphasize high-stakes testing because of the emotional strain on both students and teachers, as well as the correlation between high-stakes testing and high drop-out rates. Sophie's grandson is a teacher and she started yelling that that's what's she's been saying for 2 years.

He also spoke passionately and knowledgeably about the problems Bush has created for veterans, and how Bush and Foley are screwing up Medicare and the budget. He also stated unequivocably that he would sponsor or join the movement to start impeachment hearings against Bush and Cheney.

By the way, it was the opinion of many in the room, and not just me and Sadie and Sophie, that Mahoney leaving early was nothing more than a staged political ploy to avoid being placed into a possible debate situation with Lutrin as evidenced by the fact that Baloney Mahoney left 25 minutes after he "absolutely" had to and one of his stooges turned his cell phone on and held it up in the air the entire time that Lutrin was speaking. (Sadie caught that and she told everyone around us and created quite a stir.)

In retrospect, it was a good move for Mahoney to wimp-out as he did and just get a serious beating, rather than a face-to-face total annihilation.

And now a follow-up from Sadie and Sophie together (transcribed by Adam):

More On-the-spot News From the Soon to Be Blue 16th CD in Florida

On Sunday, February 26, 2006 in Ft. Myers, Florida at a Democratic precinct captain training, Mr. Timothy Mahoney’s campaign manager spoke on Mahoney’s behalf during the lunch break. A member of the audience stood-up and asked why the campaign manager was trying to pass Mahoney off as a life-long Democrat to the audience, when he had only been a Dem for 6 months. No response.

The campaign manager also began spewing about Mahoney creating thousands of jobs. The same audience member asked why so many of those jobs are being created in Red China as Mahoney’s company, Vfinace, financed a major deal recently in China (China Biopharmaceuticals Holdings, Inc.). The campaign manager didn’t take any more questions and quickly left the building.

DWT has already endorsed Dave Lutrin and we urge everyone in Florida's 16th CD to check out this crucial race. People who can't vote in this district can still lend a hand by chipping in at the ACT BLUE Page. Lutrin is a real Democratic alternative to Mark Foley. His primary opponent is just Foley with a different title. In a phone intreview Lutrin told DWT that "Foley is nothing more than a rubber stamp of the Bush administration. He has never represented the people of the 16th District. Foley said there was no way he would vote for CAFTA, but when he got the call from the White House, he sided with his party and voted for it, costing jobs to the sugar workers in his district. I personally called his office to find out what his stance was on Social Security when the President was touting privitization, and a staffer called back from D.C. to tell me that when he has a stance, he'll go public with it...that was last year.  Foley supports the President's so-called plan for victory in Iraq which is ridiculous because there is no plan and there will be no victory. America needs to withdraw her troops now.
Mark Foley is screaming locally about the UAE port deal as everyone should, but there is no way that a deal that big, which went through committee in the Treasury Dept., passed along with no one in Washington knowing anything about it. Either Foley was asleep and not doing his job or he not being forthright once again with his constituents."