The spike in the past 24 hours is from Rep. Goode’s editorial in yesterday’s USA Today. This was an issue on its way to disappearing from the public eye until he went and quintupled coverage of it yesterday. It’s clear that Goode wants this debate to continue, as his rehash of it yesterday accomplished.
My new favorite bit of Virgil Goode news is the fact that Ellison is using Thomas Jefferson’s personal copy of the Koran.
My hope is that Goode goes out and tries to find George Washington’s personal Bible, and this becomes some sort of psychotic Founding Father’s Holy Books contest.
It’s the era of Paris Hilton and the like.. any publicity is good publicity and all that. Plus he’s in a ‘safe’ seat and part of the minority party so there’s really little backfire potential for his shenanigans, and if it makes him a “name brand” then the next time around when his is no longer the minority party then maybe it even helps him. The “Jessie Helms” of the House.
I’m also thinking it probably does play well with Southside Virginia. If what I’ve read here about them is true- Cities and Towns built around the industrial model with factories that all went bust to foreign competition. Now add in citizens (voters) now facing further competition for jobs by illegals who’ve finally decided to move beyond the cities of the Southwest.
If he stayed away from the religious angle- and limited it strictly to illegal immigration,then kept the issue as what it is (a labor and security issue) he would get a lot more traction. As it is he’s doing himself and the issue a disservice.
That, as always, is my opinion.
In Response to TrvlnMn:
I think the fact that Goode does keep revolving the issue around religion and the fear that his Judeo-Christian majority’s stronghold may diminish shows Goode’s predilections toward a theocracy and not a democracy. And why must Goode continue to confuse the American born and raised Ellison to that of illegal alien Islamic terrorists searching to usurp the U.S. from the inside out?
IRT Topic:
Goode is pandering to the lowest common denominator on fear. If you allow gay marriage, people will want to marry dogs. If you elect a Muslim, then America will stop loving baby Jesus and the white man won’t keep power. It’s not a slippery slope argument, it’s a giant-leap-off-a-precipice argument. It’s aimed at a specific audience and specific donors.
He is just trying to earn bread and buter ..thats all.