StopLouBarletta.com

As I’ve said many times, I am a Republican.  I have been registered as such since 1999 and still carry my registration card proudly.  That said, however, I simply can not support Lou Barletta for Congress.  I would rather see Paul Kanjorski, a Democrat, keep his seat than see Barletta take it.

And that’s not because I think that Paul Kanjorski is such a great guy or an awesome politician.  Clearly, the guy has some issues.  However, name for me any politician who is perfect or who comes with no flaws.  No, I would rather see Kanjorski stay on because Barletta is a much, much worse option, in my opinion.  The Republican Party needs candidates and politicians of quality.  Lou Barletta is a joke of candidate.

For starters, the man has already run this same election against the same opponent in 2002.  He lost that election.  Now, six years later, I see no reason to believe that Barletta can achieve any greater success.  Bareletta still can’t raise any money.  Just look at the latest FEC numbers.  An inability to raise money is a sign of weakness.

I also have a problem with Barletta’s tactics.  He leaves a bad taste in my mouth.  When he first took office as Mayor of Hazleton, one of his first acts was to slash the size of the Hazleton police force in half.  Then, predictably, crime began to rise.  Barletta tried to shift the blame for all of this on an “illegal immigrant crime wave.”  However, crime statistics released by the Hazleton Police, made public during the trial that ended with Barletta’s “Illegal Immigration Relief Act” being deemed unconstitutional, show that of all crime committed in Hazleton since 2002, less than 1% the crime was committed by illegal immigrants.  Simply put, Lou Barletta is a coward who has a record of looking for scapegoats to blame for his own failings, both as a man and as a leader.

Then there’s the fact that Barletta has teamed up with Vince “I Can’t Win an Election to Save My Life” Galko.  Mr. Galko is Barletta’s campaign manager.  A look at Galko’s resume shows a record that is a complete flop.  He worked on Bob Dole’s 1996 Presidential Campaign.  Dole lost that election by a landslide to Bill Clinton.  He then worked on George W. Bush’s campaign as Deputy Executive Director of Pennsylvania operations.  While Bush won the election, he lost Pennsylvania.  Galko then worked as Senator Rick Santorum’s campaign manger.  Guess what happened there?  Yup.  Santorum, an incumbant, lost to Bob Casey Jr.

Most recently, Galko worked on Rudy Giuliani’s Presidential Campaign.  That campaign ended up being the laughing stock of the Republican Party and represented one of the worst run and most disastrous campaigns in modern politics.  And this is the guy that will be leading the Barletta Campaign?  Galko is a complete idiot and has the track record to prove it.

Combine Lou Barletta’s complete inability to raise money, his history of screwing things up and then blaming it on other people, and the fact that his campaign manager couldn’t win a high school student council election, and you are left with a very, very unelectable politician.  Lou Barletta is a loser who surrounds himself with losers.  I, as a Republican, want more from people representing my party.  Maybe some people can lower their standards (if they have any…) to support Lou Barletta, but I won’t.  I want a leader, not a habitual loser.  Lou Barletta should not be elected to the United States Congress.

-Dan Cheek
www.StopLouBarletta.com
StopLouBarletta@gmail.com

This entry was posted on Friday, July 25th, 2008 at 1:53 pm and is filed under Lou's Leadership Flaws . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.