I often use the term “boob-baiting the bozos”, to describe pulling the wool over the eyes of gullible people. It is one of my favorite quotes from the very, very quotable educator, philosopher and U.S. Senator, Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
The Weekly Standard\’s Jay Cost just calls them rubes.
Whichever you prefer, Cost has written an excellent article describing how Democrats are attempting to trick red-state Kansas into voting for a Democrat – albeit one who pretends he is an independent – named Greg Orman.
You can read his entire commentary by clicking here – and I recommend that you do. But let me give you a few key excerpts:
Itseems that the Democrats have been developing…the “sneak it past the rubes”theory. Under this approach, you present yourself to yourconstituents as an independent voice, not in hock to the nationalDemocratic party, so as to get elected. Then the national partyallows you generally to vote with your constituents, on theunderstanding that when the chips are down you will vote with theliberal leadership. Then you hope that the “rubes” back home canbe sufficiently distracted by the “war on women” or some otherphony issue that they\’ll return you to office.
Allof which brings us to the state of Kansas
Ina crafty bit of legerdemain, national Democrats convinced their nominee, Chad Taylor, to withdraw from the ballot.
Thereason for taking the Democrat off the ballot is that an independent,self-financed candidate has emerged who is actually quite a liberalDemocrat by Kansas standards. He is Greg Orman. Over the last decade,Orman has contributed overwhelmingly to Democrats, he briefly ran in2008 as a Democrat to try to unseat Roberts, and a perusal of hispositions-especially on abortion-suggests he is to the left ofthe average Kansas voter. Perhaps needless to say, he will not committo repealing Obamacare.
Bottomline: Greg Orman is a Democrat running as an independent. So this isa variant of the game Democrats have been playing for years now, withan extra layer of deception: Find a candidate who can win overRepublican voters in red states by talking about hisindependent-mindedness, and when he gets to Washington he\’ll bethere when you really need him. It\’s “sneak it past the rubes”minus the party label.
Can Greg Orman – whose prospects to win were intentionally boomed up by Democrats pushing Chad Taylor, the candidate their own voters selected, out of the race – actually convince the voters of Kansas that Greg Orman is an independent, and not one of them?
I prefer not to think so….but with the understanding that, in politics, pretty much anything is possible.
And then there is the Milton Wolf factor. In the Republican primary, Wolf did very well against incumbent Pat Roberts (though Roberts wound up winning handily). But today, reports are swirling that Wolf has floated the possibility of endorsing Orman against Roberts, provided that, if Orman wins, he caucuses with Republicans, not Democrats.
It would take a remarkable level of political naivete for Mr. Wolf to believe such a “commitment” by Orman, whose history shows him to be a political opportunist, willing to say anything for votes. What would stop Orman from, after a few months of playing lets-pretend, finding some pretext to say “look, I fully intended to be with the Republicans, but because of (trumped up BS reason), I no longer can, in good conscience, do so”?
But do I know Dr. Wolf is not that naive? Nope, I do not.
In an earlier blog, I said I could not see Roberts losing to Greg Orman, because he was an obvious Democrat, posing as an independent. But if Orman – with Wolf\’s help – could convince enough Republicans that he really, truly is one of them….while Democrats laugh up their sleeves knowing he is anything but….that prospect becomes much more realistic.
All it takes is enough boobs, or rubes, to make it happen.
