response 100 of 119:

Feb 14 04:01 UTC 2006

It's fact-check time at the Sludge Report!

A while back, klg said some unkind things about Jimmy Carter, "America's
Favorite Ex-President".  He claimed his sources were Peter Bourne's 
"Jimmy Carter: A Comprehensive Biography from Plains to 
Post-Presidency", pp. 192-3, and Carter's own "Our Endangered Values",
p. 79.  Let's go to the tape:

>Carter campaigned for governor as a self-proclaimed redneck,

Nope.  Didn't do that, as far as I can tell from klg's "sources".
Actually, the Carter-authored book doesn't seem to be much of a source
at all; none of this stuff is in there (page 79 in particular talks
about prison reform and the death penalty).

>(Carter) pledged to invited George Wallace to address the Peach State
>legislature,

Carter's opponent in the governor's race had prevented Wallace from
speaking to the Georgia legislature, and had attempted to ban Wallace
from speaking even to private groups.  Carter criticized that, saying it
would mean "stifling communications with another state", and pledged to
invite Wallace to Georgia (not "to address the legislature") to make
nice.  Of course, this played well with the more conservative elements
in Georgia.  And while it may be true that Carter's campaign back then
attempted to play both sides of the street (and, gosh, no other
politician has ever done that), his inauguration speech got national
attention (and angered said conservative elements) for it's forthright
denunciation of racism.

>presided over a campaign that distributed a photo of a political
>opponent being embraced by black basketball players to a Ku Klux Klan
>rally.

Carter's opponent owned a basketball team.  At some point, there
appeared in the newspaper the typical "(black) player pouring champange
over the head of the team owner after a big victory" photo.  This photo
was included in a flyer distributed in more conservative areas,
alledgedly in part by a member of the Carter campaign.  Carter denied
then and denies now that he knew anything about the flyer. The campaign
official who distributed said flyer reportedly was known to complain
that Carter was saying too many nice things about blacks to win the
election.

>Also forgotten was Carter s statement that he was proud to have
>arch-segregationist Lester Maddox as his lieutenant governor in 1970,
>calling him  the essence of the Democratic Party. 

There's nothing about this in the Carter bio klg claims as his source. 
Instead what it says is that Carter first ran for governor (giving up
what would have been the sure win of a Congressional seat) in a
long-shot attempt to keep Maddox (or worse, a Republican) from becoming
governor, and they remained bitter political enemies even when Gov and
Vice-Gov together.  (Maddox beat Carter back then, by the way, thanks to
heavy cross-over voting from Republicans)

At any rate, come the Governor's race in '70, Carter had to make nice
with Maddox; he was on the same ticket.  He couldn't very well say,
"vote for me, even though my running mate is the spawn of the devil". 
As for the "essence of the Dem party" quote, according to Time magazine,
what Carter said was "(Maddox's) inclination to campaign directly with
the people, in the streets, in the factories, in the barber shops and
beauty parlors, represents the essence of the Democratic party." 
Maddox's campaign style, not the man or his beliefs.
 

response 102 of 119:

Feb 14 11:41 UTC 2006

Please, Johnniejohnny, it is the Kludge Report.  Let's be accurate.

response 104 of 119:

Feb 14 17:51 UTC 2006

To be "on the same ticket" one would have to be able to vote for both by
pulling one lever or x-ing one box. Was that how the ballot was structured?

response 106 of 119:

Feb 14 19:25 UTC 2006

Again:  The list of all persons on the ballot, from the same party,
running for all offices from POTUS on down to township clerk, whether
you can or do vote for them simultaneously or not, is known as that
party's "ticket".  Hence phrases such as "straight-ticket voting", or
"splitting the ticket".

response 108 of 119:

Feb 14 22:03 UTC 2006

 re #107:  Didn't you say just the opposite in #101?

response 110 of 119:

Feb 15 14:31 UTC 2006

>That's the convention, but it doesn't mean that persons on the ticket
>have the same politics or that they like each other.

I never said Carter and Maddox liked or agreed with each other ('cuz
they didn't).  I said Carter tried to make nice with Maddox in public to
avoid dragging down the entire Democratic ticket (aka "slate" or "ballot").

(I'm starting to think that Rane and klg are the same person--purposeful
obtuseness, head-in-the-sand arguments, love of dictionary definitions
to make a point*.  Has anyone ever seen them together?)
----
*http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=ticket
4. A list of candidates proposed or endorsed by a political party; a slate.

response 112 of 119:

Feb 15 21:31 UTC 2006

 Which one is the Mr. Hyde personality?

response 114 of 119:

Feb 16 03:37 UTC 2006

(You'd have thought a guy with 2 names would have gotten at least one
brain.)

response 116 of 119:

Feb 22 14:29 UTC 2006

I thought I knew who klg was, and I happened to mention this to his 
parents.  Well, I *thought* they were his parents.  They denied any 
connection to him.

response 118 of 119:

Feb 23 03:03 UTC 2006

That would currently be "parent" (1921 model year).