REPUBLICANS LOSING THE MIDDLE CLASS IN MIDDLE AMERICA: MEET ANNE NORTHUP AND JOHN YARMUTH

As Cliff Schecter explains in Go Midwest (and Border State), Young Progressives for In These Times there's something going on in Kentucky this year. And that something may well get John Yarmuth, founder of the Louisville alternative weekly paper, elected to Congress. Unlike some of the other Democrats running in Kentucky (Weaver and Lucas), Yarmuth is not some Republican-lite reactionary. He's a real Democrat with populist goals and progressive values. "Yarmuth calls for 'putting the government back on the side of working people' by not taking campaign contributions from 'any industry' and stopping jobs from being shipped abroad." He's running against a quintessential Republican rubber stamp, Anne Northup, who has taken hunderds of thousands of dollars in legalized bribes from Big Business to always vote in their interests and ignore the interests of her constituents.

Her dismal voting record reads like a jihad against working and middle class Kentucky. DMI rates every legislator on a broad basket of issues affecting the middle class and then rates each member of Congress. Astoundingly, Northup, in her rush to rubber stamp every abysmal scheme cooked up by Bush, DeLay, Abramoff and Hastert has earned a flat zero (an F)! So what's a gal who likes the steady flow of corporate cash gonna do round election time when voters start wondering exactly why they're disastisfied with the direction the country is going and despairing of the lack of leadership from their elected officials?

Incredibly, Northup seems to think last minute bluster is going to fool someone into thinking she's somehow independent of the despised BushCheney Regime. Yesterday's Louisville Courier-Journal ran a story about Northup trying transparent this little trick. "U.S. Rep. Anne Northup, portrayed as a rubber stamp for President Bush by Democratic challenger John Yarmuth, is calling for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and a change of strategy in the Iraq war. 'Considering where we are today and the number of losses and casualties in the last month, I don't want to depend on the same team, meaning Rumsfeld,' she told The Courier-Journal yesterday."

Moderate Democrat Ben Chandler from a neighboring Kentucky district called Northup's demand that Rumsfeld resign "simply a desperate attempt by one of President Bush's staunchest supporters to distance herself from an unpopular war during a close election. I believe the voters of Louisville will see this drastic change in policy by Northup as too little, too late." (Of course Northup insists that her sudden change of heart has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the election and the fact that her race is a dead heat.

The newspaper points out that Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell of Kentucky claims that Rumsfeld has "done an excellent job" and that "he'll be remembered as one of the great secretaries of defense." (Many men who live their lives hiding in closets find it impossible, after a while, to distinguish between lies and truth, even as they're talking themselves. Unless you understand that, you'll never understand McConnell.)

"Northup's comments on Rumsfeld prompted Yarmuth's campaign to accuse her of 'cutting and running from her record.' She is 'trying to… run away from the fact that she is in lockstep with Republican leadership,' said Jason Burke, Yarmuth's campaign manager. 'She was on George Bush's team and she loved the guy and now she doesn't.'"

Bush will be campaigning in the area this weekend. Northup would love to go be she has a previous engagement with her mahjongg league. Or maybe she read today's AP poll that shows the middle class abandoning the GOP in droves. "In it, 56 percent of likely voters said they would vote to send a Democrat to the House and 37 percent said they would vote Republican-- a 19-point difference. Democrats had a 10-point edge in early October... middle-class voters are embracing the Democratic Party and fleeing the GOP-- just as they abandoned Democrats a dozen years ago and ushered in an era of Republican control." They're pissed off about Iraq and the economy and blame Bush and rubber stamp Republicans like Northup.

"Overall, the picture looks bleak for Republicans. Likely voters have low opinions of both Bush's job performance and that of the GOP-controlled Congress. The president's approval rating is at a dismal 38 percent while Congress' is even lower-- 23 percent. Two-thirds of adults say America is on the wrong track... Voters have grown increasingly angry at the Bush administration and Republican leadership in Congress throughout October... A majority of middle-class voters now favor Democrats to control the House and say that Democrats best represent their most closely held beliefs. They trust Democrats more than Republicans to handle the situation in Iraq, which most of them view as a mistake. The war is this voting group's most important issue. The economy and health care are close behind. Like voters of all stripes, the middle class is angry with Bush and GOP leaders on Capitol Hill-- and these voters could take out their fury out on the controlling party at the ballot box as they did in 1994."

Now think back to the DMI analysis above. Northup was rated an F and a ZERO on middle class issues.