Thread: Loupublicans and Dobbsocrats (ALIPAC)

Loupublicans and Dobbsocrats
By Kevin Horrigan
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
01/20/2008
Kevin Horrigan

On Wednesday afternoon, an e-mail arrived announcing an effort to draft Lou Dobbs for president. I thought it was a joke, someone from "The Onion" or "The Colbert Report" having some fun. Maybe it was someone who'd seen the 1976 movie "Network" one too many times.

You remember "Network." Peter Finch as Howard Beale, a fading network anchorman who goes a little wacky and turns into a populist Jeremiah, ordering viewers to open their windows and scream, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it any more."

For the past few years, Lou Dobbs, the CNN anchorman, has been in full Howard Beale flight. As in the movie, his ratings and celebrity have increased. He's no longer the avuncular "Moneyline" guy sucking up to Wall Street tycoons. He's a full-spectrum populist expert on everything, but particularly on the evils of illegal immigration and corporate greed.

CNN pays him $6 million a year, plus he's got income from books and speeches. He lives on a 300-acre horse farm in New Jersey, but suddenly he's Woody Guthrie without the guitar. It's hard to believe anyone takes him seriously, but in Raleigh, N.C., William Gheen's got the proof.

"We raised $160,000 in pledges in the first 24 hours," said the man behind loudobbsforpresident.org. Actually, it was less time than that, since I called Gheen about 20 hours after his news release went out. In 20 hours, some 1,226 Americans went online to pledge money to Lou Dobbs, should Lou decide to run for president. Apparently they're mad as hell and can't take it any more.

Gheen was fishing in known waters, since, as founder of the Americans for Legal Immigration Political Action Committee, he's got a mailing list of people who believe the United States should strictly enforce its current immigration policies. Above all else, this means that undocumented immigrants should be deported if caught and not given a path to citizenship. At ALIPAC, "amnesty" is a mortal sin.

"But this is actually a much deeper issue," Gheen said. "The American public is no longer self-governed or an integral part of what's happening in [Washington] D.C. In fact, even the Congress has been relegated to a vestigial political body. The executive branch, under George W. Bush, has been deciding what laws it will or will not enforce. This is equivalent to appointing yourself as king."

Speaking of which, Lou Dobbs has refused to rule out running for president. "Never say never," he says. But Gheen did not ask his permission to set up his organization. "This is by popular demand," he said.

"Many people are grateful to him for reporting stories that aren't getting through to the public via traditional channels," said Gheen, 39. He is a professional political consultant by trade and speaks the language fluently. "We are celebrating his efforts to raise public awareness of key issues — immigration, trade, electoral integrity, harmful consumer products and so forth. "Lou Dobbs is a positive populist, and that's at the root of societal and political evils, that the American public has been dispossessed of power."

Lou Dobbs would seem to be a very odd savior. But then this is a very odd movement. Its focus on illegal immigration and victory in Iraq appeals to Republicans. Its anti-corporate themes — wage disparities, excessive executive pay, corruption — are geared to blue-collar Democrats. "The general appeal is to slap the face of the D.C. status quo," Gheen said.

But how do you get Lou Dobbs to pick up the torch?

"We theorize that Lou Dobbs is watching the primaries very closely and is not content with the current situation," Gheen said. "We think he's weighing the progress of the primaries against the fact that he doesn't want to [run for president], but someone will have to. And that someone may have to be him."

Plus, he added ominously, what happens if America's corporate and political elite decide they've had enough of Lou Dobbs. "How much longer does Lou Dobbs think his voice will be allowed to be heard?" he asked.

I suggested to Gheen that as a professional political operative, he must know the sad history of third-party movements in America. After all, fewer than 1 million people a night watch Lou Dobbs on TV, and some of them might, just possibly, regard him as a kook.

"Yes, but we're in historic territory as a nation now," he said. "We're not just talking about change. We're talking about saving the United States of America as you've known it."

Seems like a pretty big job for one man, even a man as great as Lou Dobbs. I wished Gheen good luck and said goodbye. I wasn't mad as hell, but I couldn't take it any more.
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/c ... enDocument

You remember "Network." Peter Finch as Howard Beale, a fading network anchorman who goes a little wacky and turns into a populist Jeremiah, ordering viewers to open their windows and scream, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it any more."

Boy, do we ever know about this movie!

Dixie

Originally Posted by Dixie

You remember "Network." Peter Finch as Howard Beale, a fading network anchorman who goes a little wacky and turns into a populist Jeremiah, ordering viewers to open their windows and scream, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it any more."

Boy, do we ever know about this movie!

Dixie

....AND WE ARE STILL AS MAD AS HELL AND WE ARE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!!!

I remember the movie. Its a good thing my neighbors live down the road a piece. My voice echos through the mountains every time I shout that out.


Added to Home PAge
http://www.alipac.us/article2885.html

tawriter of article could not take anymore of what?common sense?someone who wants people to obey the law?decent trade policies for america?goods that will not poison us from china?this guy is a kook!You have to wonder how anyone this unintelligent and naive ever got a job writing for a major newspaper.But if you want to keep americans uniformed and get them to vote for people who want to keep them down,hire dumb people to write articles for your newspaper and of course,give thier demented and brain full of horse dung oppinion!!!!