Mark Lahr – 3/16/08

This page was last updated on March 17, 2008.

Rendell inspires party switch; Mark Lahr; Beaver County Times; March 16, 2008.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“For the first time in Gov. Ed Rendell’s reign, he has inspired me.”

[RWC] Can elected politicians “reign?”

“Rendell’s derogatory painting of all whites as racists who would not vote for a black infuriated me. To demonstrate that the governor is an ignorant man, I have changed my party affiliation and will now be voting for U.S. Sen. Barack Obama in the Pennsylvania primary on April 22.”

[RWC] Actually, Mr. Rendell targeted “conservative whites” in his comment. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Mr. Rendell – who endorses Mrs. Bill Clinton – said, “You’ve got conservative whites here, and I think there are some whites who are probably not ready to vote for an African-American candidate.” You’ll note Mr. Rendell specifically referred to “conservative” whites. Mr. Rendell’s intent was to diminish Mr. Obama while blaming/smearing conservatives. This, of course, ignores the fact that it was predominantly “conservative whites” who voted for Lynn Swann for governor in 2006.

“I want to encourage everyone, Democrats and Republicans, to vote for Obama to embarrass the governor for his racist remarks. Republicans need to re-register as Democrats.”

[RWC] Of course, the by-product of this action would be a small number of Republicans determining the Republican candidates for the general election. I don’t know if this would benefit Democrats, but it wouldn’t help Republicans.

“Let’s all demonstrate that Pennsylvania is not a southern racist state. U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton supporters should also get on board with this approach. Don’t worry, once the primary is over the party oligarchy will anoint Clinton.”

[RWC] Something about the language in this letter doesn’t feel right and the “southern racist state” comment doesn’t help. Whenever I hear someone refer to the “racist south,” it’s invariably a leftist making the comment.

If Mr. Lahr is a Republican as the letter implies, he should know Republicans have nothing to prove in this area. After all, Republicans nominated and voted for Lynn Swann for governor in 2006. Outside of PA, Republicans in 2006 nominated Ken Blackwell for governor of Ohio and Lt. Gov. Michael Steele for one of the Maryland U.S. Senate seats. In 2007, Republicans nominated Bobby Jindal, son of Indian immigrants, for governor of Louisiana. Mr. Jindal won that election. Prior to that, Mr. Jindal was a U.S. representative.

I could be wrong, but I would not be surprised to learn Mr. Lahr is a leftist (regardless of alleged party affiliation) and a Barack Obama supporter who’s just trying to sway the primary in Mr. Obama’s favor. Unfortunately, a quick web search found nothing to confirm or refute my suspicion. If I am correct, however, Mr. Lahr would not be the first local leftist to claim he’s a Republican. Messrs. William A. Alexander, Ed “Fellow Republicans” Hum, and George Reese are examples.

In any case, whether Mr. Lahr is a Republican or a Republican impersonator, this is not a good letter. I wouldn’t let petty revenge govern my vote.