Democrat Party Spokesman Emeritus: Haley Barbour Lost In 1982 So There
It must be tough to live in the past. For people like Bill Minor, Democrat Party Spokesman Emeritus, that is a way of life. Of course, that is largely the way of life for Mississippi Democrats. They are left thinking about there glory days before these pesky Republicans started challenging the one-party reign the less than democratic Democrats are so keen of.
In the latest from the Democrat Party Spokesman Emeritus, he brings up the 1982 Senate election:
Barbour’s Fox News sortie into the foreign policy minefield brings to mind his unmemorable 1982 Senate race against aging Sen. John Stennis when he tried to portray Stennis, then one of the hawkish of war hawks in Congress, as soft on standing up to the Soviets in the Cold War.
Mississippians then saw that Barbour was talking pure hogwash and soundly defeated him.
When the Democrat Party Spokesman Emeritus pulls out his typewriter and thinks about his next column, does he hope no one will read his hogwash (to steal a word from Minor)?
So Barbour lost to Stennis because he inaccurately portrayed the Senator as soft on the Commies? First, I would like to give credit to Stennis, the last of truly conservative Southern Democrats. If I was of voting age in 1982 (or anytime before that), I imagine I would have cast my vote for the Kemper County native.
The Democrat Party Spokesman Emeritus fails to mention that Stennis has been a Senator since 1947. Do you think that might have had anything to do with his re-election victory?
Also of interesting note that should be mentioned in any story of 1982 is that it was largely considered a Democrat year. While they only picked up one seat in the Senate, they netted 27 seats in the House as many voters blamed the new president, Ronald Reagan, for the recession. A Republican would have a hard time in a race for an open seat, never mind a contest against the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services.
It’s got to be tough for Democrats. They are left bragging about a 35 year incumbent defeating a rookie in what was still largely a one-party state some 27 years ago. Ah, the glory days…
