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Russell Goes Down Swinging

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By TOM JACKSON

tjackson@tampatrib.com

Published: November 16, 2008

Having lost his bid for re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives, frontiersman and living legend Davy Crockett reportedly dismissed his former constituents thusly: "You may all go to hell; I will go to Texas."

Crockett's quote, memorable for being pithy and direct, is instructive for others who, having waged and lost political war, seek to put the experience in perspective. Most, alas, fail the test of wit, whose soul, as Crockett plainly knew and Shakespeare's wise Polonius famously declared, is brevity.

John Russell springs to mind. Having established himself as the rare recyclable skyrocket - white-hot and explosive, the Dade City nurse-practitioner flamed out twice as the Democratic challenger for Republican Ginny Brown-Waite's District 5 congressional seat - Russell recently issued a post-election debriefing that rejected Crockett's precision but, except for the part about heading to Texas, said pretty much the same thing.

Or perhaps there is another way to characterize Russell's denunciation of Nature Coast voters so lacking "appreciation for factual information" that they cannot engage in "rational ... persuasive discourse."

Fixed Attitudes, Poodle Press

Russell decries "inherent and entrenched sociological/cultural attitudes" and a media "predisposed toward advocacy of incumbents." These conditions, he writes, deprive any Democrat, "irrespective of background or funding," any chance of deposing any Republican, "no matter how poor-performing or corrupt."

Got that? The only viable explanation for suffering back-to-back 20-point spankings is that 5th District voters are stupid, incurious, prejudiced, lazy and content with incompetence, so long as the candidate has an "R" by her name. Oh, and the lackey press doesn't help.

Brutally and bombastically analytical to the last, Russell's post-mortem contains much of what prevented him from connecting effectively with the electorate (twice): faulty conclusions wrapped in irate sermonizing, served on a platter of edgy condescension.

On The Other Hand

Russell came at District 5 slashing and threatening to burn, a bright but short-fused near-doctor with a head so crammed with data it was hard to tell whether to wrap it in duct tape or lay wagers on when it would explode. No one doubted his knowledge - Russell could do 40 minutes on entitlement history and reform without a note and leap immediately into a half hour on international trade - but his remedies ranged from overwrought to radical.

Three examples:

•Favoring means-testing recipient retirees while dramatically raising income caps subject to payroll taxes showed preference for ending Social Security's traditional and official role as a defined-benefit, prepaid pension and turning it into a welfare program.

•He'd have used a stick - employment mandates for companies that moved operations offshore - but suggested no carrot to expand hiring, such as cutting federal corporate taxes (at 38 percent, No. 2 in the developed world).

•Despite a free-falling economy and investors anxious for exits, Russell touted linking taxes on capital gains and dividends to personal income. Never mind that strangling sound from the financial sector; this was about "fairness."

Ah, but the voters of the 5th District were not interested in factual information or rational discourse. Bottom line, Russell says: They just didn't get me.

At the risk of going all seventh-grade here: Yes they did. They totally did.

Tom Jackson can be reached at (813) 948-4219.

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