How to Fire a Bad Politician - 101

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Brent

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How to Fire a Bad Politician - Political Action That Works
http://www.washingtonceasefire.com/content/view/43/37/

We have seen how the activities of one person can mean win or lose in a big political race. That shouldn't seem so astonishing, considering that to become elected, the candidate must influence literally tens of thousands of people in one way or another: to help in the campaign, to contribute money, to give him their votes. One person opposed to a politician can inflict fatal damage if they only work hard enough. The side-effects of a serious campaign being run for the sole purpose of turning the electorate against a candidate can be as damaging as the direct results. Following are some potential effects of a modestly well-organized crusade of opposition:
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In Jack Brooks' case, his actions that brought Debbie Kellams into the battle occurred in August. Debbie only had about three months before the November elections to plan an attack against Brooks and execute it. It took a miracle to pull it off. A jugger naught of a woman named Debbie Kellams was the miracle. Having a good, determined challenger like Stockman, who had already one challenge under his belt, helped a lot.
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well one woman took down my former congresscritter, but not through political action:D

Unfortunately he was pro gun, and was replaced by an anti Dem.
 
I live in the area where it all happened. There are quite a few NRA and TSRA fellows in the area and several ranges. He sold us the line that he traded his vote for funds for Lamar University. We didnt need his bull because his cow had died.

Here is an excerpt from Bill Clinton's book

"Just before the House vote (on the crime bill), Speaker Tom Foley and majority leader Dick Gephardt had made a last-ditch appeal to me to remove the assault weapons ban from the bill. They argued that many Democrats who represented closely divided districts had already...defied the NRA once on the Brady bill vote. They said that if we made them walk the plank again on the assault weapons ban, the overall bill might not pass, and that if it did, many Democrats who voted for it would not survive the election in November. Jack Brooks, the House Judiciary Committee chairman from Texas, told me the same thing...Jack was convinced that if we didnt drop the ban, the NRA would beat a lot of Democrats by terrifying gun owners....Foley, Gephardt, and Brooks were right and I was wrong. The price...would be heavy casualties among its defenders." (Pages 611-612)

"On November 8, we got the living daylights beat out of us, losing eight Senate races and fifty-four House seats, the largest defeat for our party since 1946....The NRA had a great night. They beat both Speaker Tom Foley and Jack Brooks, two of the ablest members of Congress, who had warned me this would happen. Foley was the first Speaker to be defeated in more than a century. Jack Brooks had supported the NRA for years and had led the fight against the assault weapons ban in the House, but as chairman of the Judiciary Committee he had voted for the overall crime bill even after the ban was put into it. The NRA was an unforgiving master: one strike and you`re out. The gun lobby claimed to have defeated nineteen of the twenty-four members on its hit list. They did at least that much damage...." (Pages 629-630)

"One Saturday morning, I went to a diner in Manchester full of men who were deer hunters and NRA members. In impromptu remarks, I told them that I knew they had defeated their Democratic congressman, Dick Swett, in 1994 because he voted for the Brady bill and the assault weapons ban. Several of them nodded in agreement." (Page 699)
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Jack Brooks was right The NRA, GOA, TSRA and 9700 folks like Mrs Kellams bought Mr. Brooks down. He was one of the most powerful men in Congress at the time. He was on the banking committee and managed to amass owneship of some financial institutions in town. Just pure coincedence probably.

I wasnt in Mr. Brooks district but worked there. However, I did bend a few ears of fellow shooters and hunters that I saw that did vote in his district.

I remember watching the live coverage of election night. During the early hours Mr. Brooks was smoking that fine cigar and smiling. As the election grew the gap started closing finally the death blow was given and Steve Stockman was the winner. Mr. Brooks made some very ungentlemanly comments.

Now with that in hindsight does anybody think Hillary Clinton wants to go into the 2008 election with the assualt weapons ban reauthorization as an issue against her?

Even if she gets elected she has to face off with the NRA even as her husband did if she wants to pass an assualt weapons bill.
 
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