The Marines have landed... smack dab in the middle of the GOP race
for governor.
GOP contender Mike Cox has never been bashful about revealing he
served in the Marines. Now it is front and center on a TV screen near
you.
The timing is interesting in that the TV spot follows by one week
the launch of an anit-Cox radio commercial. It seeks to smudge the Cox
image by suggesting some alleged wrongdoing involving the story that
refuses to go away.
"You've heard about the party at the Manoogian Mansion. The one
that Attorney General Mike Cox says never happened?" And then the
radio spot launches into a statement from the police dispatcher who
claims she sent scout cars to the party and the next day the records
were gone. She has had trouble however remember the dates and took
seven years to come forward.
When reporters showed up for a briefing on the latest Cox ad,
they half expected to see a Cox defense of the "party" story. Instead
they got the Marines.
Campaign manager Stu Sandler refused to acknowledge the
exisistence of a "party" rebuttal which many felt was going to be
unleashed last week but then scrubbed.
"We are happy with the Marine ad," Sandler put on a smiley face
while fending off Kilpatrick questions from the gaggle of reporters.
Remember even Mr. Cox has observed that this is like "gun on my
shoe" but a GOP consultant is not so sure the Marines can kill the gum.
"I think at the end of the day, this "gum on the shoe" is going to
continue to stick and he's (Cox) going to have to deal with it head
on…You gotta un stick that gum at some point," Bill Rustum argues.
But the un sticking may have to wait for another day.
So far Cox is coming back in the polls and even eeked out a
two-point lead over the former front runner Pete Hoekstra so if there
is a "Kwame" factor it is not sending the Cox numbers into the dumper.
"We've had a couple of good weeks," reflects Mr. Sandler as he
and his boss are hoping that sending in the Marines will stretch that
out even more.
Ten-hut!