Lucy on labels ... "like being called fat by a hog"

If I'd have been able to reply to the Riley campaign's opening salvo, a negative one no less, where he uses an everyman (I think nearly every demographic and gender being included) ad to suggest Lucy Baxley is "too liberal for Alabama", I'd have challenged the label rather than allowing him to get away with the language. While I did like the tone and folksiness of "Being called liberal by someone who proposed the largest tax increase in Alabama history is like being called fat by a hog." I'll first remind you, and hope you know this already, that "liberal" doesn't mean "free spender" Miss Lucy! Like many Democrats you're allowing the Republicans to use the Karl Rove approach where they tell your potential voters who you are and what your party stands for.

The report comes from The B'Ham News' Charles J. Dean in "Gloves come off in fight for governor's mansion : Baxley's 'a liberal'; Riley's 'a hog'" and you can find the ad on Riley's media site. I noticed soon to be former Alabama State Senator Gerald "Dino" Dial doing his impression of Zell Miller/Joe Lieberman as Riley's representative Democrat. That the Clay Combover helps out Clay County's own doesn't surprise me but Gerald Dial is as much a Democrat as he is an underwear model. Dissing on John Kerry and Hillary Clinton might not cause you much harm yet I'm with The Decatur Daily in thinking you embrace Bu$hCo at your own peril. A 46% approval and 51% disapproval for Bu$h has me hoping you'll go right ahead with this approach. Shilling Bu$hCo's failed Iraq policies shows love to Lucy!

Like the image above suggests, the GOP message is being shown to be talk not walk. Your party takes care of Big Oil and Big Pharma while holding an increase to the minimum wage hostage to try to pass the Paris Hilton Inheritance Protection Act. Our shrinking middle class with even larger concentrations of wealth over the last two decades is a reality that even folks in Alabama are recognizing. The Ambramoff/Reed/Scanlon (Riley's former staffer!) scandals are getting deeper and deeper. You've so far avoided the details of the gambling money questions but sooner or later some assertive reporter will hem you up. Alabama has plenty of problems that will require capacties of a person from a party that doesn't seem to loathe government. Labeling somebody "liberal" might be a favor given how more and more Americans are waking up the failures of "conservatism" and especially how that philosophy has been implemented by the Bu$h administration. Thanks Governor! Peace ... or War!