Home Winners and Losers: Frederick, Gilmore, Rasoul, Bush, McCain
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Winners and Losers: Frederick, Gilmore, Rasoul, Bush, McCain

Chris Graham

Compiled by Chris Graham
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LOSER: Jeff Frederick and the right to vote

The guy whose aim seems to be to sink the Republican Party of Virginia to the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay was at it again this week. “This might not be illegal, but it sure stinks to high heaven. Is this really how Obama expects to win the presidency with – a coalition of criminals? I guess it’s Obama’s latest big government program: ‘no inmate left behind,’ ” said the bombastic Frederick in a response to a report in the Washington Examiner that the county registrar and sheriff in populous Fairfax allowed voter-registration forms and absentee-ballot information to be delivered to inmates with misdemeanor convictions and those awaiting trial in the county.

There is no indication that the Obama campaign had anything to do with the registration efforts, nor any evidence that people with felony convictions are being allowed onto the registration rolls without first being cleared by the governor’s office.

We’d like to give Frederick some benefit of the doubt, but since he has made it a point in the past to play loose with the facts in the voter-fraud area, well …

 

WINNER: Sam Rasoul returns PAC, committee money

It’s not like the Sixth District Democratic Party congressional nominee couldn’t use $1,250 right now, considering that we’re in the stretch drive to Election Day. But Rasoul said today that he has decided to return two checks totaling $1,250 to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Rockbridge Democratic Committee.

“While I value their support and thank them for their generosity, I have made a pledge to take no money from PAC’s, special interests, lobbyists or even my own party. Why? Because I believe that the only people I should be beholden to are the individuals of the Sixth Congressional District,” Rasoul said in a statement.

 

LOSER: The McCain ‘suspended campaign’

A report in Talking Points Memo this week revealed that the John McCain campaign ran 1,304 television spots on Sept. 25, a date that might be significant to you if you remember when McCain “suspended” his campaign to solve the Wall Street crisis.

Yes, it was Sept. 25.

And then he didn’t even solve the Wall Street crisis.

Funny how it all worked out there …

 

LOSER: Nixon without the Watergate

President Bush’s approval rating in Gallup this week is a historic low – 25 percent, the third-lowest as measured by Gallup.

Richard Nixon’s approval stood at 24 percent in the summer of 1974, right before he resigned to forestall an expected impeachment and removal from office post-Watergate. Harry Truman had the lowest Gallup approval rating, 22 percent in 1952 at the height of the Korean War.

 

LOSER: Warner and Warner

A Politico.com story from earlier in the week had John Warner thinking about endorsing Democrat Mark Warner in his U.S. Senate race against Republican Jim Gilmore and also sharply criticizing Gilmore for his stance on the Wall Street bailout.

Gilmore, showing why he’s losing by a 2-1 margin, felt compelled to respond to the comments from John Warner in a press release.

“This nation is obviously facing economic problems, but giving $700 billion of the taxpayers’ money to the Wall Street high rollers who created this situation is not the right answer. If we allow innocent taxpayers, who are already struggling, to be saddled with this bailout what comes next? A bailout for the automobile industry, for the airline industry? Where does it end? I believe the answer is to make the Wall Street high rollers help pay for the crisis that they created – not the taxpayers,” Gilmore said.

Quite maverick-y of that Gilmore fellow, eh?

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Chris Graham

Chris Graham

Chris Graham is the founder and editor of Augusta Free Press. A 1994 alum of the University of Virginia, Chris is the author and co-author of seven books, including Poverty of Imagination, a memoir published in 2019. For his commentaries on news, sports and politics, go to his YouTube page, TikTok, BlueSky, or subscribe to Substack or his Street Knowledge podcast. Email Chris at [email protected].

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