What an insufferable redneck! Does anyone actually believe when faced with the first hint of international crisis, that Hilary Clinton will flap her little hands, start bawling, collapse and require male intervention.  I am surprised Elizabeth Edwards hasn't sent old Dudcat back down the hillbilly hole from whence he came.

You are so right about this.

When Mitt Romney cried on national television, nobody said he was too weak to lead the country.  But because Clinton sounded like she choked up, suddenly we're analyzing her emotional stability?

Come on. 

WORST.PET.STORY.EVER.

...and it does not just apply to gender...regardless of what Gloria Steinem says...

You're definitely the Larry the SAB was thinking of (and proxying). 

Am I remembering correctly that you work at Fermilab?

Agreed that Green960 is the best source of TRMS downloads ... and (shhh) they're free. 

My bad. I overstated Saunders's role in the Webb campaign. It's not right to say Webb owes the race to Mudcat. That race was so close that Webb owes the race to everyone who worked for him, paid and unpaid. I think modern Virginia is really at least four distinct states: (1) NoVA, (2) Tidewater; (3) South and Southwest Virginia, wrapping as far north on the west as Buchanan County; and (4) everywhere else (with substantial liberal and moderate pockets in the northwestern mountains). Mudcat's influence is mainly in area three.

So let me try to restate this, more carefully this time. Mudcat was very helpful in bringing rural Virginians back to the Democrats for Mark Warner in the 2001 Governor's race and in Webb's Senate race. Mudcat helped the Democrats understand that they should never have given up the rural, poor areas. He's helped convince them to at least show up and ask for votes, and to point out that those people's interests are better served by progressive populism than by the conservative party. Area three is populated by people whose economies, environments, purses, and health have been devastated by irresponsible mining practices, massive pollution (which I deeply resent), closing of mills and factories with inevitable loss of jobs, union-busting, inadequate health care, and inequitable educational opportunities etc.  And they've heard their accents mocked - laughed at -- for close to 150 years, even though there's about a dime's worth of difference between an older NC Outer Banker's accent and that of a fisherman from a small village in Maine. So continue to try humiliate these people with name-calling if it makes you feel better. But I can absolutely assure you that a lot of these people always were, and remain, fundamentally progressive. The hill people were never invested in slavery, and huge pockets of the highlands were abolitionist and pro-Union and withdrew from the South (e.g., the entire state of West Virginia), and have never had the wealth of the Piedmont or east. It's nearly miraculous that the conservative party won them over. And I'm trying to tell you, nicely, that in some ways, name-calling and demeaning stereotypes, from southern and northern liberals, helped insult these folks clean out of the Democratic camp. How long would you vote for a party whose rhetoric lumps you into the same category as Jesse Helms, even if you helped desegregate the lunch counters in, oh say, Asheville or Roanoke?

I've never understood why Democrats abandoned those areas to Republicans and put all their bets in NoVA after A.L. Philpott died. (Philpott strenuously and capably wielded what was left of the Harry Byrd political machine for Democrats for a very long time, and was without doubt the most powerful state legislator, in a way that will probably never be seen again. E.g., if Philpott yawned during the second reading of a bill, any legislator who voted for that bill had serious hell to pay later.)

Look, I'm the one who said that if you look carefully at Mudcat, you will not like all of what he says. For pete's sake, there's a Roanoke news article that says the guy sleeps under a Confederate flag bedspread. I dunno about you but, if it's true, it bothers me. A Southern Baptist preacher from the hills explained to me, very compellingly and kindly, what was wrong with that when I was about 12. I don't know whether the scandalous accusations you've made about Mudcat are true, but you should be sure you can prove those things before saying them publicly.

I'm asking you back off personal attacks and look at his political beliefs and philosophy.  Seriously, go get the entire Rolling Stone article. Nobody who listens to RM will embrace all of what he says or does. But isn't that true of all political allies and candidates? If Mudcat were my ally, I'd expect to have to battle with him about some of the issues. I'm sure I'd try to change his mind, or at least his rhetoric. I suspect his views are often more progressive than his words. I suspect that if he were on Hillary Clinton's side, he'd have been quick to point out and then decry the double standard in the crying thing.

Try this pure-idiom quote from Saunders, about the Virginia anti-gay-marriage ballot question:

"I'm pretty sure I ain't a queer. And I've never had queer thoughts, but I do have several queer buddies who called me and asked me to help," Saunders said. "I think it's blasphemy to put this on the ballot and try to divide God's children for political gain. God loves them queers every bit that he loves the Republicans." (emphasis added)

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/76077

If you don't see the full-on wink in this quote, there's nothing I can do for you. Admit it, that's sly and funny. 

And, most importantly, John Edwards is from a much more progressive political tradition than either Webb or Saunders. I don't have these qualms about Edwards. He's more from the Terry Sanford, Jim Hunt, Harvey Gannt, Ferebee Taylor school of southern progressive populism. It's a UNC and Duke thang. The Research Triangle area (embracing Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill) is the single most progressive area below the Mason-Dixon line. Period.