'Mudcat' sets Dem's sights on rural America

[T_i_B]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/05/20/wmudcat20.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/05/20/ixnews.html

The hour of "Mudcat" has finally arrived - and for George W Bush's Republicans that is bad news. A gun-loving, stock-car racing-mad country boy, Dave "Mudcat" Saunders has to be America's most improbable Democratic consultant.

For years he has been in the party's shadows as metropolitan north-easterners - epitomised by Sen John Kerry, their losing 2004 presidential candidate - have dominated the Democrats' national leadership.

But now as Mr Bush's support among conservatives implodes, the Democrats sense a chance to compete with Republicans for the heartland. Mudcat's clarion cry - "We are a bunch of wusses. The party of F D Roosevelt was a big tent. It has evolved into a pup tent" - is suddenly in vogue.

Mudcat helped to secure a remarkable victory for a Democrat, Mark Warner, as the last governor of Virgina, a very conservative state, by touting him at bluegrass festivals and stock-car races. Now he wants to repeat that on a national level. He has a simple message to the Democrats to take on the Republicans on their own turf: "No one is going to outgun and outpray us."

[iconoclastic cat]

1. Now THERE, my friends, is our Rove.

Not a bastard, but a genius.

[w4rma]

3. He gets it and he has proven that he gets it. (nt)

[acmejack]

2. Become the enemy, what a clever strategy

Let us pray whilst I oil up old Betsy...

[wallybarron]

4. Read his book

It's all laid out. Just follow directions.

[bluefish]

5. a telling snip

In a sign of the times, Mudcat was recently invited on to the John Boy and Billy Show the local "redneck" talk show. "I thought they would whip his ass," said Mr Lancaster. "And they ended up mostly agreeing."