Hoyer calls for TV spots by Perot

[Rose Siding]

As Democrats prepare for their fight against President Bush's proposal to privatize Social Security accounts, House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer wants former presidential candidate Ross Perot to return to the airwaves with his 30-minute infomercials blasting government deficits.

Mr. Bush has spent the past several weeks traveling across the country pushing his proposal to let younger workers invest part of their Social Security contributions in private accounts, and now Democrats are having their turn, holding 235 Social Security town hall meetings in coming weeks to warn people that the idea is risky and unnecessary, will undermine Social Security, cut benefits, increase the deficit and harm the economy.

The Maryland Democrat pushed these arguments yesterday at the College of Southern Maryland in La Plata.
"I believe this administration is pursuing the most irresponsible fiscal policies of any administration," Mr. Hoyer said.
...
Mr. Hoyer said he asked Mr. Perot in a conversation last year to return to television with infomercials similar to the ones he did in the early 1990s, preaching of the dangers of deficits.
"In his down-home way, I think he'd convey what I think is the real crisis," Mr. Hoyer said, referring to the president's fiscal policies.

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20050222-111910-7934r.htm

Of course the Times wants this to look like a nutty idea, and it's off the wall at first, second and third glance. But the CSM has a prominent Gingrich piece today: "GOP's 'big idea' man rolls out a new manifesto". This snip makes the Times piece more interesting:

Anything that jeopardizes the Republicans' status as the reform party "is more dangerous for us than it is for Democrats," {Gingrich} says, adding that the GOP majority comes from the followers of former third-party candidate Ross Perot who want "real reform." "To the degree that we are seen as no longer the reform party, we create space either for a third party or for people to just stay at home."

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0223/p02s01-uspo.html

[KittyWampus]

1. My Confession Here, I Voted For Perot.

please don't think too badly of me... I live in NY and Clinton was certain to carry the state.... and I wanted Harkin to get the nod.

:hi:

This is a great idea. Perot might tweak the memories of those who vote GOP but remember a time of fiscal sanity.

[Rose Siding]

4. Alignning that slice of repub voters with dems would be a real coup

I think it's a good idea too.

I ended up thinking Perot was kind of flaky, but I really appreciated hearing from him. He was talking about switching elections to the weekends (to increase participation) FIFTEEN years ago.

[KittyWampus]

7. His Assertions Of Bush Threatening His Family Don't Seem So Far

fetched anymore... do they.

I appreciated the fact he knew what he was talking about regarding economics and also his sincerity... it didn't come across as an ego trip to me.

The poor Admiral thought :(

[CottonBear]

2. Steney was kicking RW butt on C-Span this am.

I had to go to work so I only saw about 15 minutes of his speech. He laid everything out in plain English terms that the most rabid, mouth-breathing wingnut could understand. My favorite line was "only 1/3 of SS recipients are retired. 2/3 are disabled or survivors." Chew on that one for a while.

[Eloriel]

6. And he's the biggest enemy of Voter-verified paper ballots that

exist other than the voting machine companies themselves. Senator Chris Dodd is right behind him.

[Wright Patman]

3. An 'Omerta' deal

has been struck between the BFEE and Perot, IMHO.

The Dallas News interviewed him about a month ago conditional upon the reporter not discussing politics with him.

[Rose Siding]

5. Here's a reference to that piece

snip>
The 74-year-old Perot has kept the media largely at bay since his last presidential campaign in 1996.

He declined to talks politics in the recent interview with The Dallas Morning News, but he discussed his life and upbringing.

http://www.team4news.com/Global/story.asp?S=2845254

Too bad. -maybe he's one who might be responsive to an enthusiatic grass roots approach.