Conservatives rally against spending

More than 160 people rose to their feet to give former Bill Clinton advisor and FOX news commentator Dick Morris a standing ovation during an Americans for Prosperity (AFP) rally in Danville on Monday morning.

Surrounded by black “November is Coming” signs, Morris spoke to the crowd — most of whom were sporting large blue Robert Hurt campaign stickers — about excessive government spending in Washington.

“I saw the best sign outside,” Morris said as he took the stage. “It said, ‘Hurt U.S. Congress.’”

Laughter erupted.

Hurt, a Republican and state senator, is challenging freshman Rep. Tom Perriello, D-5th District. Hurt did not attend the rally, but fellow state legislators delegates Don Merricks and Danny Marshall spoke against Perriello and excessive spending.

Morris is traveling the state with AFP’s Virginia chapter director, Ben Marchi. AFP is a national non-partisan organization that Marchi said does not advocate for candidates but instead educates voters.

“We consider it our mission to protect and advance every individual’s right to economic freedom,” Marchi said. “We believe that that is a fundamental building block for what this country is and what it should remain.”

Morris, who said he used to be a “conservative Democrat,” spoke mainly on President Barack Obama’s role in increasing the national debt to more than $13 trillion — interspersed with stories about former President Clinton’s infidelity that elicited laughter.

Morris criticized the federal stimulus package, cap and trade and health care reform — all three of which Perriello supported — and attacked Obama for what Morris said was the president’s strategy to increase the level of taxes up to the level of spending. When that gets “locked in,” Morris said, “we no longer have a free enterprise system.”

“We want to bring spending down to the level of taxes before Obama took office,” he said. “Tom Perriello will not get us there, but Robert Hurt will.”

Although Perriello supported those pieces of legislation, he voted against the president’s budget because of concern over the deficit.

Jesse Ferguson, southern regional press secretary for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), attacked Hurt for calling in “his big corporate allies.”

“Robert Hurt doesn’t just want to raise taxes,” Ferguson said in an e-mail, “now he’s in line with corporate-funded special interests that want to protect devastating taxpayer-funded tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas.”

AFP was founded by David Koch of Koch Industries, which has been criticized for outsourcing jobs.

But Hurt’s campaign manager, Sean Harrison, said the campaign had no role in Monday’s event and accused the DCCC of “simply trying to distract voters from Tom Perriello’s failed record.”

Morris spoke about the movement to de-fund the health care law, then repeal it once “we get rid of Barack Obama.” Hurt recently signed a pledge to de-fund the legislation, according to a news release Monday from DeFundIt.Org.

Reached by phone Monday, Democratic 5th District Chairman Fred Hudson argued that anyone pledging to de-fund health care reform was pledging to take away the newly-formed benefits, such as rebate checks for seniors in the Medicare donut hole and coverage for people with preexisting conditions.

“I don’t think you want to be in that position where you are taking that kind of protection away from people,” Hudson said.

After Morris’ standing ovation, Marchi addressed the crowd about where to go from here, encouraging people to volunteer to knock on doors and call voters.

“What we need to do going forward from today is reach out to those folks who aren’t here and educate them,” Marchi said. “Tell your neighbors Tom Perriello has voted Nancy Pelosi values, not 5th District values.”