Of Armor & Fear...

So pronounced was the power of a tired media cliché observed in the Washington Post this morning, I felt subtly compelled to say the 4th Kentucky Congressional race between Ken Lucas and Geoff Davis is “casting a wide net” over local broadcast and cable commercial time availabilities.
Of course, adopting another flea-bitten favorite, I could also say the local political TV season is “in full swing”.
But, I won't.


Democrat Ken Lucas and Bush-Republican Geoff Davis

The Republican candidate and current freshman representative, unrepentant and still flush with ill-gotten booty, has, with that booty, professionally wrapped himself in the once proven Bushian pastiche of bunting, soldiers and born-again reform Democrats.
In a spot that aired heavily last week but that does not, tellingly, appear on the candidate’s webpage, Mr. Davis claims to have personally spoken to a young soldier who called his office and expressed his concern over a lack of armor protection.
Davis further claims that he acquired the armor in short order and ends the commercial with a wife saying Davis’ actions saved her husband’s life.
Thanks to a commenter on the BluegrassReport.com and an archived Kentucky Post story at the site, one can get a sense of how egregious this commercial was from this transcript of the radio version:

GEOFF DAVIS: I'm Geoff Davis and I approve this message.
(Melodramatic orchestral music starts)

MAN'S VOICE: Two weeks before I deployed to Iraq, I learned that my team and I would not have the armored vehicles that we needed. I called Congressman Geoff Davis. He took a personal interest and was determined to get us the armored vehicles we needed. By the time we arrived in Iraq there were new armored vehicles waiting for us. (Music turns ominous) Seven days later, we were hit by a roadside bomb.

WOMAN'S VOICE: I get a phonecall at 6:20 in the morning and all I hear is, "Babe... (in a choked voice) I got hit... really bad." And then the phone died. I just was thinking, "God, I don't care (sobbing) what's happened to him just bring him back."

MAN'S VOICE: Without that armor, there's no doubt we'd have all been dead.

WOMAN'S VOICE: If Geoff Davis hadn't stepped up and worked hard and made that happen, I might be sitting here right now with two children and no father and no best friend.

ANNOUNCER: Paid for by Geoff Davis for Congress.

Old Geoff’s got the fear down to a fair-thee-well, no?
The stark raving terror abates a tad with Davis’ laughable all male and all-Caucasian Democrats for Davis commercial that is available, for now, on the candidate’s webpage.
Shades of macaca!
Suffice it to say that one of the elected characters in the Davis spot presides over a city locals' call “The City of Empty Buildings” after years of developer booms without, it seems, a market for such development.


The Democratic candidate, four term congressional veteran Ken Lucas, is hitting hard in his commercial at his opponent’s manufactured patriotism.
The Lucas spot examines the Bush Republican’s recent acceptance of an $11, 450 contribution from executives of a national payday lender and his even more recent about face on the Military Personnel Financial Services Protection Act (PDF), which would cap interest rates on predatory pay day loans at a still very high 36% and is, astonishingly, a bill Mr. Davis sponsored.
According to the Center for Responsible Lending, “at deployment time, when military families are faced with extra expenses at home and abroad, they may be more vulnerable to the promise of quick cash from payday lenders.”
More real than a TV commercial, I’m hearing that parents and families of Kentucky National Guard units, scheduled for deployment before the holidays, were called over the last two weeks and invited to a meeting with military officials.
Families were told, in this call from a military official, that they would be given a list of items they “might want to provide to insure their son’s return” and that personal armor would be among those items.
The meeting, scheduled for this past Wednesday in central Kentucky, was cancelled at the last minute.
Families were told a list of these items would be mailed to them, a list that will most likely be mailed at taxpayer expense.
Will the full compliment of military-approved personal body armor be on this list?
Will use of this armor exclude these soldiers from military insurance guarantees?
Will local military families face this considerable expense if they elect “to insure their son’s return”?
A few seconds of Googling shows that a Level IIIA armored vest, the best chest protection, costs $821.
That large numbers of military families are still facing this Hobson’s choice is most clearly observed with this Ebay listing of body armor.
At this stage of the local TV war, Mr. Lucas is on the side of the angels.
Unfortunately Mr. Davis, who has yet to return his $41,000 of tainted Delay/Abramoff and Randy Cunningham money, is still flush with NRCC and predatory lender cash.
If you are planning to Vote for Change, please consider a contribution to the Ken Lucas campaign.

Images: GeoffDavisForCongress.com, WeNeedKenLucas.com
- posted by Sean @ 3:19 PM