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Leach gets the short shrift
Political Animal —
LEACH GETS THE SHORT SHRIFT.... Last night, DDay asked a very reasonable question: "If a 30-year Democrat spoke at the RNC, excoriated his former party, and endorsed the Presidential candidate of the opposite party, would the media cover it?" DDay was referring, of course, to former Rep. Jim Leach of Iowa, a respected, long-time Republican lawmaker who not only endorsed Barack Obama, but appeared at the Democratic convention last night to urge others to follow his lead. This development barely generated any attention at all. When Zell Miller appeared at the Republican convention, it was a key development. When Joe Lieberman, who isn't even a ...
The Leach Speech
The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan —
Cable is uninterested. I'm not:
Did The Tree Fall?
Talking Points Memo —
From TPM Reader KW ...
I think most people missed it if they weren't watching on line or on CSpan, but Jim Leach deilvered a masterful speech about why, as a Republican, he has endorsed Barack Obama. If you didn't see it, check it out on YouTube:
I know he sounds like Kermit The Frog and looks like a College Professor (which he is ;-)) -- but this is the sort of speech that inspires me -- careful, factual, and comprehensive, without being dry.
Full disclosure -- until he lost in 2006 to Dave Lobesack, Leach was the congressman for my district here in Iowa. He was well-liked in his district, and did a sterling ...
Is Leach the Canary in the GOP Coal Mine?
Comments from Left Field —
Living in Canuckistan has it’s down sides, one of which is the lack of US news coverage in the evening pacific time. I had only two televised choices to catch up on the goings-on at the Democratic National Convention last night, MSNBC’s replay of the events or CNN’s whatever the hell it is CNN thinks they are doing. As you can imagine I chose the former and as such was left with only the highlights of Michelle Obama’s and Ted Kennedy’s speechs. Lucky for me, CSPAN has fantastic online coverage of the convention (insert shameless plug for one of our blogads here) and I was able to catch what seems to me to be ...
One of the Most Decent People to Ever Serve in Congress
ArchPundit —
I’ve been a fan of Jim Leach long before I ever heard of Barack Obama. He was the Congressman for the District which Cornell College resided and he would visit fairly regularly and was humble, smart, and incredibly down to earth. He never ducked tough questions and he treated everyone with respect. He also called out the right wing of his party frequently. Gorenfeld just covered another story I’d never heard before:
In 1983, Norquist and Abramoff were part of a new wave of Republicans—they called themselves “movement conservatives”—struggling for control of the GOP. The old guard, symbolized by Rep. Jim Leach and his think ...
