Roundup phone calls have started ...

Grapeshot said:

What you thought he said, when he said what he said, is not what he meant to say when he reread what he said. So he says. :lol:

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Tess said:

Hmmm.......sounds like a politician.

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skidmark said:

SNIP Darned Northern Virginians. Think nothing exists outside the Beltway, and don't know how to drive.

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Citizen said:

Well, he did study rhetoric under the direct tutelage of its codifiers.

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Citizen said:

Hey!!! Watch the NoVA comments there, country boy.

At least we know how to drive on roads with more than one lane going in the same direction.

And, quit lumping the rest of us together with Ed. That hurts. That really hurts.

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Repeater said:

This is, indeed: Floyd Bayne. At the recent Young Guns book signing that I posted about here earlier, Bayne confronts Cantor, wanting to know why Eric has refused all debates.

As Cantor later explained to the RTD, he can't debate because he's "too busy" ...



Really, Eric - can't, or won't? Let's see:

Cantor won't debate:



Bayne is quite willing to discuss issues. Why won't Eric? At least Floyd confronted Eric in front of the TV cameras.

Perhaps he could join in the merriment at the 2010 Roundup.

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vt357 said:

I think Cantor's refusal to debate has more to do with trying to pretend Bayne doesn't exist vs afraid to debate. If people actually realize there is a true conservative running, Cantor would be in big trouble. The debate would give Bayne some serious free press. So he acts like he is running unopposed.

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peter nap said:

While Bayne is certainly in a better lane than Cantor, I discovered a statement he made during the last VCDL meeting when I reviewed the video.
That was the death toll of Baynes campaign from my point of view and the reason I choose not to interview him.

I don't see any reason to trade one fair weather gun supporter for another.

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peter nap said:

I discovered a statement he made during the last VCDL meeting when I reviewed the video. That was the death toll of Baynes campaign

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MSC 45ACP said:

Even though this is pretty far outside our district, Bridget and I will attend. RSVP sent.

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ed said:

Gonna make us GUESS?

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jmelvin said:

Ed will you be selling these shirts?

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vt357 said:

I think Cantor's refusal to debate has more to do with trying to pretend Bayne doesn't exist vs afraid to debate. If people actually realize there is a true conservative running, Cantor would be in big trouble. The debate would give Bayne some serious free press. So he acts like he is running unopposed.

I got my roundup phone call. Told them I wouldn't be attending b/c once again Cantor has chosen to hold his even at an antigun location. Said I was there protesting last year and am considering doing it again this time.

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Rep. Eric Cantor, R-7th, has said he will "probably not" debate Democratic challenger Rick Waugh and Independent Green candidate Floyd Bayne.

When Rep. Rick Boucher, D-9th, was asked about debates, he told The Roanoke Times: "The primary focus of my activities must remain my congressional work for so long as Congress remains in session."

The League of Women Voters of Virginia was unable to get Rep. J. Randy Forbes, R-4th, to appear in a debate with his Democratic challenger, Dr. Wynne LeGrow.

In the 1st District, Democratic challenger Krystal Ball yesterday called on Rep. Robert J. Wittman, R-1st, to "stop ducking the issues and his votes" and conduct debates across the district.

Like Boucher, Cantor cites his busy schedule as a reason not to debate.

"Too many people are out of work, so we're staying focused on that and staying in Washington four to five days a week," Cantor said during a recent appearance in Henrico County.

But LeGrow disagreed. "I think it needs to be done," he said. "The voters need the chance to see the two candidates on a level playing field debating the issues."

To date, the only mutually agreed-upon debate between Boucher, a 14-term incumbent, and Republican H. Morgan Griffith is on Oct. 26 -- too late, experts say, for the event to have a significant impact on the outcome.

"The issues of the day ought to be debated," said Griffith, who had once proposed more than two dozen debates across the sprawling Southwest Virginia district, but recently declined an invitation from a Bluefield television station to debate Boucher on the Friday before Election Day.

"If you can't debate them, how can they expect to carry the message to Richmond or Washington?"

Political analysts say a scarcity of debates often is not an accident, or a casualty of scheduling. It's just shrewd politics.

Blessed with leads in the polls and the potential to make an election-turning slip of the lip, incumbents or front-runners can act like football teams with the ball and the lead at the end of a game.

They "take a knee" and wait for the clock to expire, rather than run a play and risk a fumble that could cost them the victory.

"I think it's wrong and outrageous, but if you can get away with denying your opponent debates, you do it," said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

"They're naked up there -- suddenly they don't have the consultant and campaign manager next to them," Sabato continued.

"There are spontaneous moments in debates that are very revealing -- so people really do learn something about the character of the candidates," he added.

In choosing to debate, "you're giving your opponent what he or she cannot buy -- a ton of free publicity and an opportunity to create a forced, or unforced, error by the incumbent."

While it may be sound political strategy, voting advocacy groups say refusing or limiting debate diminishes representative democracy by leaving too much of voter education to television sound bites and campaign spin machines.

...

Cantor, who has served in Congress since 2001, recently spent an evening in his district at a Henrico Barnes and Noble, signing copies of his book, "Young Guns: A New Generation of Conservative Leaders," co-written with fellow Reps. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Paul Ryan, R-Wis.

At the event, protesters -- mostly supporters of Waugh, Cantor's Democratic challenger -- carried signs along West Broad Street and chanted "We want debate."

Bayne went a step further and confronted Cantor in the book signing line, asking why he won't accept the challenge. Cantor said hello but didn't respond to the question.

Waugh calls Cantor a "chicken" for "running away" from the voters.

Bayne, who met yesterday with the editorial board of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, said of Cantor: "Would you want to defend his voting record?"

Ray Allen, senior campaign strategist for Cantor, said: "I think Eric Cantor is extremely well-known, his positions on the major issues of the day and his leadership in Washington is well-documented.

"The voters know he is working every day to create jobs and cut taxes," he said.

"I think they should try spending their time talking to voters about what they believe instead of following us around and protesting."

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