Dick Armey stumps for Jim DeMint
By CraigLinton Posted in Miscellanea — Comments (3) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
After a debate that was called a ‘verbal street brawl’ by the Greenville News, Rep. Jim DeMint took his campaign on the road to the University of South Carolina in Columbia and Furman University in Greenville.
Invest $x.02 in DeMint, then read on.
The DeMint campaign made the two stops with former House Majority Leader Dick Armey. Armey, now chairman of FreedomWorks along with Jack Kemp and Boyden Gray, stumped for DeMint with a message of social security and tax reform for the little guys--college students.
Armey praised DeMint for his insight into reforming the tax code. DeMint's tax reform calls for abolishing the IRS in favor of a 23% national sales tax. DeMint has been getting blasted across the airwaves by the Democrats, Tenenbaum, and the media, but it has yet to make a significant impact on the polls.
Armey also spoke about the merits of the DeMint-Armey plan for reforming social security. DeMint's plan to save Social Security (warning: .pdf) is built around creating Social Security savings accounts.
Before the event began, I saw a reporter and photographer from the Greenville News make a beeline to the four Democrats standing off to the side. Meanwhile at least sixty or seventy DeMint supporters stood holding signs. Unsurprisingly, the Greenville News article wastes words on Inez Tennenbaum and her supporters, even though she wasn't even mentioned during DeMint's or Armey's speeches.
There's an interesting contradiction in the Greenville News article:
Furman University senior Dawn Williams said students need to get active in politics because it impacts their future.
Fair enough. The article goes on to say that Williams is holding a sign for DeMint's opponent, Inez Tenenbaum. The article also introduces Thad Wilson, Chairman of the College Republican Confederation of South Carolina. Keep reading...
Williams questioned why DeMint would talk to a throng of college students about Social Security, but Wilson said students need to worry about it now.
Flippity-floppity! Eight paragraphs later, the future of Social Security doesn't seem so important to an Inez supporter who's concerned about the future. The good news is that Jim DeMint is concerned about the future--the future of Social Security and the future of our economy under an oppressive tax code.
If you've got a buck-oh-two, consider investing in Jim DeMint.
Update [2004-10-5 17:59:26 by CraigLinton]: FreedomWorks Press Release
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Dick Armey stumps for Jim DeMint 3 Comments (0 topical, 3 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
I've heard DeMint speak on many occasions and he's always been a self-proclaimed "geek" when it comes to policy.
I think Democrats are ignorant if they believe that the Social Security issue isn't going to touch a nerve with students. Social Security pay-outs may go to seniors, but it's still coming out of my bottom line. That's where DeMint hits home.
The 23% sales tax--which congress will enact nine years after the earth crashes into the sun--is just another way of saying, "Abolish the IRS." Interestingly, while DeMint was walking in the Chapin Labor Day Parade, the "Abolish the IRS" sign held by his supporters received the most cheers in this middle-America community.
Inez has unfortunately turned this issue into a "Jim DeMint wants to raise taxes" sound bite on the TV and radio. But DeMint is endorsed by just about every "friend of the taxpayer" PAC and think tank in existence. Inez should be on the defensive--she comes from the money-hog education industry.
the best idea when he's in the midst of the pointless controversy about firing gay schoolteachers? He didn't mean college professors, presumably, but I'm not sure how college students feel about this issue. I guess it isn't an issue one way or the other to most of them.
I must confess that although he does have a valid point, I wonder if this was a poor time to raise anger at gay schoolteachers, right after his campaign was in hot water for joking about "dikes". Most of the press coming out of the state has been incredible negative and unfair to Rep. DeMint.
I thought that DeMint was going to attack Tenenbaum based on her atrocious performance running the state's education department. By bringing in gay teachers, he risks making her seem sympathetic, or a champion of the oppressed.
I'm surprised allowing openly gay teachers is even legal in South Carolina. 25 years ago California nearly outlawed gay teachers, and California is far more liberal than South Carolina.
What a great contrast between the young Democrat and the young Republican...
Really, this does show a pretty remarkable move by DeMint. Most pols would be happy to give a stump speech on a college campus that sounds like a Whitney Houston song, but not DeMint.