Steve Driehaus Is Suing A GOP Front Group For Defamation But...

[Joanne98]

Last we caught up with Cincinnati Congressman Steve Driehaus, a middle of the road Democrat on his way to a thumping 52-45% defeat, he was denouncing the DCCC for abandoning his race. They spent exactly $59,778.01 in his district, while he was being inundated with third party ads tearing him apart, much of it, $77,698.00, from GOP front group the Susan B. Anthony List.

Driehaus announced Friday that he's bringing a defamation suit against the anti-Choice group for lying about him in public statements.

The group claims Driehaus, who has campaigned as an anti-abortion candidate, supports taxpayer-funded abortions because he voted for the national health care law. Driehaus said the claim is false and that the law bars any federal funding of abortion.

"A lie is a lie," Driehaus' lawyers wrote in his federal defamation lawsuit. "The First Amendment is not and never has been an invitation to concoct falsehoods aimed at depriving a person of his livelihood."

In fact, Driehaus lost a great deal of support from Democrats because he followed the Susan B. Anthony List position on abortion by voting for the Stupak Amendment on November 7, 2009, one of only 64 Democrats to cross the aisle and vote against Choice. In fact, it's been my contention that that was one of the votes that cost Driehaus his reelection bid in the rematch with former Congressman Steve Chabot, a Boehner crony he had decisively beaten in 2008.

Driehaus' 51.18 ProgressivePunch score shows that on the contentious substantive issues that divided the Congress along partisan lines he voted with the Democrats a tiny bit more than he voted with the Republicans. There were an awful lot of disappointed Cincinnati voters who turned out for him-- and Obama-- in 2008. Back then Obama took OH-01 by beating McCain 55-44% (this after two consecutive Bush wins against Gore and Kerry). Cincinnati voters were ready for Hope and ready for Change. Neither Obama nor Driehaus lived up to voter expectations and two years later, Democrats and left-leaning independents stayed home on election day.

Before we look at how Driehaus beat Chabot in 2008, let's go back to 2006, the last midterm before the one that we just went through. That was a wave year for Democrats but Chabot had managed to beat City Councilman John Cranley 101,838 (53%) to 90,963 (47%), taking both OH-01 counties, the sliver of suburban Butler plus Hamilton (Cincinnati itself). In the hard fought Senate race going on simultaneously-- in which Sherrod Brown ousted incumbent Republican Mike DeWine-- DeWine eked out a narrow victory in OH-01.

Two years later the story changed. Obama won Ohio 52-47% and he managed to win Hamilton County with a slightly larger margin of victory, 53-46%. That helped sweep Driehaus to victory as well and he beat Chabot 155,089 (52%) to 140,469 (48%), strictly based on a great Democratic turnout in Cincinnati, where Driehaus pulled 151,547 votes (54%) to Chabot's 131,012 (46%), while getting creamed in the Butler County suburbs (Driehaus 27% to Chabot 73%, about 13,000 voters participating in total). If that wasn't a message to cater to the Democratic base, there has never been one. But instead Chabot's voting record indicates he was trying to placate implacable conservative voters in the suburbs. And look what happened. Over 50,000 Democrats who had propelled Driehaus to victory in 2008 just stayed away this year. Chabot beat him in both counties-- 76-21% in the white flight suburbs of Butler County and 94,502 (51%) to 85,450 (46%) in Cincinnati itself.

It wasn't the Susan B. Anthony List's lies about Chabot that ended his congressional career-- although they certainly helped keep the GOP turnout high. He lost because he failed to inspire Democrats and they just did not bother to come vote for the lesser of two evils. Obama should be looking at results like this around the country because he's falling into the exact same trap Driehaus did, a trap poignantly laid out by Frank Rich yesterday, that will guarantee him the same one term that Driehaus got. Here's a news report on Driehaus' problem and after that, Rich's explanation of Obama's dilemma.

http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2010/12/steve-driehaus-is-suing-gop-front-group.html