Deutsch's Senate chances ride on selling his intensity (Dem., Florida)

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Sun, Aug. 08, 2004


CAMPAIGN 2004


Deutsch's Senate chances ride on selling his intensity

A potent television campaign and a lot of shoe leather help make the No. 2 Democratic Senate candidate a force to be reckoned with. But will his aggression impress voters or drive them away?

BY BETH REINHARD

[e-mail]


It's 10:45 p.m., and U.S. Senate candidate Peter Deutsch is talking to five voters at a McDonald's in tiny Flagler County.

He still has one more campaign stop before the four-hour drive south to his home in Hollywood. Certainly an incumbent member of Congress, a contender to represent one of the nation's largest states, the leading fundraiser in the race, has better things to do.But the silver Pontiac van lingers at the curb. Deutsch will not leave the vinyl booth until he's got the five votes.

He likes to call himself a fighter, and he fights to win.But Deutsch is out of practice, having avoided a competitive race for 12 years. Polls show him in second place and indicate that outside of South Florida's retirement condos and affluent suburbs, many voters have never heard of him. Supporters cringe when he attacks his opponents, worried that voters will see him as a bully.

Then they add: Don't underestimate him. No one will stay up later or get up earlier, shake more hands or shake more money out of donors, drive more miles or drive more campaign staffers crazy.
(snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/states/florida/counties/broward_county/9346920.htm



Good luck to Peter Deutsch.

[flordehinojos]

1. It might be time for a change!

It might be time for a change and Betty Castor might be the name!
:toast:

[Judi Lynn]

2. Anyone but a Republican or Penelas.

Not that Penelas can be considered a Democrat, anyway!

[iamjoy]

4. What Do You Have Against Penelas?

I am leaning towards Betty Castor, but Penelas really impressed me in the debate.

[Judi Lynn]

5. I think we all know what Penelas did to Al Gore in 2000

'm not going to feed you reasons why I dispise his conduct. You know as well as any of us, if you read the newspaper, and paid attention to tv news that he was absolutely, unfathomably a dirty, backstabbing, double dealer who used the Democratic Party for identity, yet contributed far worse than nothing.

We all remember, as well, his announcement that he would not allow policemen in his area to assist the Federal Government in retrieving the kid, Elián Gonzalez after the Federal Court ordered his drunken great uncle Lázaro to cooperate and surrender him to authorities.

Penelas must have a feeling there are some Democrats who want him to drop dead as a consequences of his filthy behavior to have spent quite a bit of time trying to justify himself, and apologize before he was very far into his campaign for Bob Graham's Senate seat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gore rips Florida Senate candidateThe Associated Press
Updated: 12:55 p.m. ET June 7, 2004MIAMI - Al Gore harshly criticized U.S. Senate candidate Alex Penelas, saying his fellow Democrat was “the single most treacherous and dishonest person” he dealt with during the disputed 2000 presidential campaign.

The former presidential candidate’s comments came in response to questions from The Miami Herald about Penelas’ role in the 2002 election and the current Senate race. The comments were published in the Herald’s Sunday editions.

Although a Democrat, Penelas is mayor of a largely Republican county.

Fellow Democrats attacked him for not aggressively supporting Gore during the campaign and especially during the controversial recounts in many counties — including in Miami-Dade — that led to Bush’s victory after narrowly winning Florida.
(snip/...)

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5158004/

[iamjoy]

6. That's Politics

I know what he did to Gore, and I understand why he did it. Gore got screwed, but it isn't fair to lay all the blame on Penelas.

The Elian Gonzalez situation was so explosive and emotional for people in Miami/Dade. I don't know if Penelas separated himself from it to save his own skin or if being in closer touch with his constituents had a different perspective on it that did not follow the Democratic Party Line.

The picture with Jeb means little, it was in 1999 before the whole 2000 debacle. There are pictures of McCain with Kerry. Doesn't mean one supports the other.

[Judi Lynn]

7. That's failed politics.

Headlines from a few national papers during the Elian debacle:

No public official has been more disappointing than Alex Penelas, the ambitious mayor of Miami-Dade County. Penelas rushed to the front of the mob this week, promising to hold President Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno responsible for any violence that occurs if immigration officials try to return Elian to his father in Cuba. In case that incitement of mob violence wasn't direct enough, Penelas also said he would not allow his law enforcement officers to help federal authorities remove Elian from his Miami relatives' home. George Wallace couldn't have said it better 40 years ago."

-- St. Petersburg Times

"In challenging the federal government's authority to carry out the laws that maintain control of its borders, Penelas, born of Cuban parents, appears to have forgotten that his allegiance is to the United States. He is fertilizing the seeds of doubt in many Americans' minds regarding the loyalty of immigrants even after the oath of citizenship. He is opening the door to violence in his city when Elian is rightfully returned to his father. If anti-Castro fanatics declare open season on federal officials, Penelas and his confrontational cohorts should be held accountable."

-- Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas is more than irresponsible in vowing not to cooperate with federal officials ... and in inflaming already white-hot passions. Penelas and others are within their rights to support the uncle in his effort to exhaust all legal remedies, but as leaders as well as defenders of democracy, they must show that they believe in and will uphold the law. Any heroes in this charged and tragic saga will be those able to restore calm and reason, not those who stoke the mob mentality."

-- San Francisco Chronicle

"Apparently it isn't enough that the Cuban exile community in Florida has managed to distort utterly American foreign policy toward a pathetic little island nation and to inflate its pathetic bearded dictator into a 'threat' to U.S. national interests. Now they've got the Miami-Dade County mayor pandering to the point that he sounds almost like an old-time segregationist Southern pol talking about interposition and nullification. Did it ever occur to the mayor that as the duly elected leader of a polity on American soil, he ought to be urging his citizens to obey the law? Instead, he threw gasoline on the fire...."

-- Chicago Tribune

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/issues/2000-04-06/sidebar.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He doesn't grasp the larger picture, he's not ready for national politics, and he blew his chance by reaming the Democratic Party's candidate for the Presidency in 2000.

[flordehinojos]

8. The Penelas track record so is an indication that he puts Penelas first

and that he is not a principled man..that is why he links so well with the Bushes ...I could never vote for an "astute" (?) politician who happens to be an unprincipled man, who puts himself first (just like George and Jeb do) and who, only now, when e-voting machines carry with them the possibility of being hacked, or votes altered without paper trails and leave him out cold should there need to be a recount, only now he wants to throw the e-voting machines out and put in paper ballots and scanning optical machines. It is not the integrity of voting what he is looking after. It is the possibility that the machines can step on his corn and not even record any possibility of his getting on the ballot in the general elections.

[Judi Lynn]

9. You're right!

I've heard from some DU poster/readers that at the moment Penelas isn't really doing that well in Florida.

Florida can surely do better than that. It's about time, isn't it?
People outside Florida will never respect his name after what he has done to the country through his bad stewardship of his Democratic responsibility in 2000, and before that, his pathetic, unprofessional behavior during the Elián inprisonment in Miami.

He's worth zip to Democrats outside Florida.

[artr2]

3. This guy may be a fighter

but he is a dirty fighter and I do not like his tactics.