Hi, I am Dean Judy and I Know What’s Best For You
Posted by James on November 4th, 2006
And I will make sure to enact laws so that you will live the way I think you should… because, you know, I am a dean at Georgetown University, an influential and powerful inside-the-Beltway institution.
More seriously, some of us at NoVaPolitics are at times troubled by the Republican incumbent Congressman Frank Wolf’s proclivities, including his fondness for government spending. But as the saying goes, “Don’t make perfect the enemy of good.”
On the whole, I find Wolf to be far from perfect, but certainly a better choice for my district than his challenger Democrat Judy Feder by a wide margin. Let me repeat my earlier observation of her after I heard her in person — I found Feder to be “a bespectacled, nasal-sounding political commissar long on left-wing ideology and criticism of Bush, but short on credible, coherent plans to make things better.”
Had the Democrats chosen someone more “centrist” and “down-to-earth,” they might have had a better shot at Wolf given the anti-incumbent and anti-GOP mood this year. But they did not, and I expect Wolf to win the contest if by an uncomfortably close margin.
A close-run thing, as the Duke of Wellington said.
November 6th, 2006 at 10:16 am
Wolf wins with at least 56%, which I think places the result well inside the realm of comfortable if not quite in the landslide grouping.
November 6th, 2006 at 11:41 am
Given Feder’s almost complete lack of experience implementing policy (and her only significant involvement I know of was the disastrous HillaryCare) or any other public achievement or a total lack of name recognition prior to the election, I consider that — even if true — an uncomfortably close margin in a place like the 10th District.
Can you imagine what would have happened if the Democrats ran someone like, say, Jim Webb against Congressman Wolf?
November 7th, 2006 at 10:00 am
Yes, I can. They too would lose just like Judy Feder will lose this year. Jim Webb is still in the running against George Allen by virtue of Allen’s horrendously run campaign and a series of red meat gaffes and stumbles that the media seized on to energize the Webb effort. That would not have happened against Frank Wolf.
November 7th, 2006 at 11:23 am
Thankfully, we’ll never find out, eh?
November 8th, 2006 at 11:17 am
Wolf beat Feder 57 to 41, which is a bigger margin than I thought.
November 8th, 2006 at 10:42 pm
Perhaps, but only slightly larger than I predicted…