Mongiardo cites 'end time' scriptures to bash GOP ...
Officials stump for 2nd District candidate Weaver

At center, State Rep. Mike Weaver of Elizabethtown talks with local residents after speaking at the Nelson County Democratic Party's picnic Saturday at the Bardstown Community Park.

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette

April 22, 2006 - With blue skies, bright sunshine and the aroma of burgers on a hot grill, the Democratic faithful descended on Bardstown Community Park Saturday afternoon for an old-time political rally and picnic.

Nearly every local Democratic candidate for office on the May and November ballots was in attendance. Candidates in contested races had an area where they could display and hand out campaign materials and conduct the business at hand -- politics.

Featured speakers included Kentucky State Treasurer Jonathan Miller, Kentucky legislators Sen. Dan Mongiardo and Rep. Mike Weaver. Weaver is running for the Democratic primary in the Kentucky's 2nd Congressional District. Weaver faces James E. Rice of Campbellsville in the May primary.

Miller and Mongiardo were not campaigning for themselves, but were there to rally party supporters and urge support for Weaver, who presumably is the Dem's chosen son to face incumbent Rep. Ron Lewis (R)-Cecilia in the November General Election.

A common theme in comments from all three men was the need to make the Democratic party the party of "true moral values."

The day after the May Primary, Republicans will begin lying about Democrats, Miller told the crowd. Republican candidates will be telling voters the Democratic Party isn't the party of moral values.

Miller blasted the statehouse Republicans for trying to pull $13.7 million from KAPT, the state-run college tuition savings program during the recent session of the General Assembly. The effort failed, thanks to work by General Assembly Democrats, he said.

The Democratic party is strong on healthcare, education and veterans issues, and the party must get the message out to voters.

Mongiardo cites 'end time' scriptures in bashing GOP

State Sen. Dan Mongiardo, MD

Mongiardo said Republicans have done a good job attacking the Democratic Party on value and character issues. The reason for that success is due to Democrats' failure to respond to these attacks.

Mongiardo noted that his former opponent in the U.S. Senate race was in the news recently (Mongiardo nearly beat Sen. Jim Bunning in the 2004 election). Time magazine recently ranked the Top 10 and Worst 5 U.S. Senators, and Bunning was listed as one of the bottom five.

"I think that was being very generous, don't you?" he said, bringing laughs from the crowd.

Mongiardo turned to scripture in an effort to explain how "people like (Bunning) get elected."

Republicans deceive voters into believing they are of moral character and Democrats are not, he explained.

"Look in the Bible and look at the passages that say 'In later times there's going to be an increase in deceivers,'" he said. "They'll be hard to detect, they'll look more like an angel of light from heaven ... and many will be deceived -- and even the elect may be decieved."

Mongiardo said the deceivers today are in the Republican party, citing the Iraq war and the controversies in the Fletcher administration as recent examples of deception.

"You don't hear Democrats talking about those kinds of things," he said. "Democrats are talking about jobs, education and things that are important to us."

Mongiardo disputed the GOP's longtime claim that Democrats are the party that supports abortion.

Abortion rates dropped 17 percent under the Clinton administration but have climbed under the Bush administration, he said. More women are now chosing abortion because either they can't afford to raise a child or they do not have health insurance.

Per capita income has dropped since the Clinton years and the number of ininsured Americans has risen dramatically, he said. "Republican policies are actually pro-abortion policies," he said. "Democrats know how to reduce abortion rates; Republicans don't."

The Republicans "have led our state and our country in the wrong direction," he said, calling on Democrats to pull together to put Democrats in local state and national office.

Weaver: Send Democrats to ask 'the hard questions'

Weaver said the Republican-controlled Congress and Executive Branch have failed to ask the hard questions and seek the hard answers. "That's the primary reason I am running for office," he said.

Democrats have historically been hesitant to identity themselves as people of faith. "I think it's time that we as Democrats change that," Weaver said. "It's time that we take that back because we are people of faith."

It's important to do so because a person's faith impacts their decisions. "We need to step forward as Democrats and say that we are people of faith, and we aren't going to let you question that again."

Weaver blasted the Bush administration for cutting $27 million from federal education funding. "Education is something we have to have to move this country forward," he said. "If we don't do that then we are shrinking the middle class."

Weaver acknowledged that too many U.S. jobs are going overseas to take advantage of cheaper labor. "I don't know exactly what we can do about that, but I do know there has to be something we can do, and I think you're going to have to have a Democratically controlled Congress to get that done."

On the war in Iraq, Weaver said had he been in Congress in 2003, he probably would have voted to go to war based on the information that was presented.

In retrospect, Weaver said it was "the biggest intelligence failure that this nation has ever suffered, and no one has been fired." He added that some of the intelligence to support the war "may have been manipulated."

He praised the troops that have fought in Iraq. "No one should ever question the job they did," he said. The Bush administration fell short on planning for what would happen in Iraq after the initial war.

It's time for Iraq to form it's own democracy and the Iraqi army to take over the fighting, he said. "It's time for our troops to start phasing out of the fighting," he said. "That's what I think."

Weaver said if voters send him to Congress it will be a step toward taking control of Congress back from the GOP. "You will have people who will ask the hard questions and demand the answers," he said.