THE BANZAI BOYS

Home support falls for hopefuls Graham, Edwards Stephen Dinan and Charles Hurt, August 12, 2003, The Washington Times)

"[Bob Graham] has given so many 30-second ads we wouldn't know what to do with them," said Chris Paulitz, spokesman for Rep. Mark Foley, a Florida Republican who is running for the Republican nomination for the Senate seat. He pointed to Mr. Graham's support for a filibuster to block the confirmation of the first Hispanic federal appeals court judge and the senator's opposition to the Medicare bill that passed the Senate.

And then there are Mr. Graham's rhetorical attacks on President Bush, in which he questioned the president's honesty and suggested he should be impeached for misleading the nation into war.

"The people of Florida are starting to realize that the man running for president is not the same guy that was a two-term governor and a sitting senator that a broad cross-section of Floridians were voting for," said Paul Seago, political director for Bill McCollum, another Republican seeking the seat.

Last week's Mason-Dixon poll showed Mr. Graham with 53 percent job approval--down from 63 percent last year.

For his part, Mr. Edwards faces similar poll numbers and the same questions about votes and rhetoric. [...]

But few episodes more clearly show the divergence between the national and local audiences than when Mr. Edwards told the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's annual convention last month he was "tired of Democrats walking away from President Bill Clinton, who did an extraordinary job of lifting up and reaching out to all of the American people."

Ferrell Blount, the new chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, said Mr. Edwards can expect to see that used in a campaign: "Bill Clinton--I don't know if I'd go so far to say despised, but he certainly is not a revered individual in the state."

Merle Black, a professor at Emory University in Atlanta who studies Southern politics, said both senators will see consequences at home, though Mr. Edwards will probably be more damaged.

"It's kind of a cultural norm in North Carolina to tend to the business at hand, and he's missed lots of votes," Mr. Black said. "His priorities during this last year have clearly been winning the Democratic presidential nomination."

As for Mr. Graham, Mr. Black said he believes the senator will forgo re-election.

For a suicide bomber the tragedy is not to destroy yourself, but to leave the target standing. So, this is tragic. Posted by Orrin Judd at August 12, 2003 1:20 PM