John Carter, meet Clayton Williams

Comparisons like this are never good.

Democrat Mary Beth Harrell would seem to face an uphill battle to unseat Republican John Carter in the conservative Congressional District 31, which stretches from Williamson Co. north to Erath Co., but one has to wonder if Carter could pull a Clayton Williams simply by continuing to talk.

Good ol' Claytie. Still the gold standard for come-from-ahead losing in a campaign. Who knows what might have happened had his advisors succeeded in replacing him with a cardboard cutout for the last six months of that race.

The piece recapitulates the history of the debate decider saga, then closes with a little twist:

We'd love to ask Carter whether being the official nominee of one of the nation's two dominant political parties constitutes credibility or whether it might come from being a military wife and mother for most of her life (Harrell's son is serving in Iraq), but we can't contact him. The two phone numbers on his campaign Web site aren't working; we called his congressional office, which gave us a different number that was never answered, not even by a machine; a promise from his congressional office that the campaign would call us had not been kept as of press time. Perhaps we lack "credibility."

You have to admit, though, that keeping Carter as far away as possible from anyone who can quote him is a wise move. Too bad for him that even his hometown newspaper is agreeing with Mary Beth Harrell on his need to debate. Better start learning about some issues, John. Thanks to Eye on Williamson for the link.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on September 01, 2006 to Election 2006 | TrackBack