By Bill Peterson
Two interesting factors are coming together in the Democratic primary race for the District 28 Congressional seat, and neither is good news for the incumbent, Henry Cuellar. Flat out, liberals don't like Cuellar, who is regarded as a "Vichy Democrat." Republicans like him fine and there's no question about Cuellar's moderate voting record or his easiness with President Bush.
But Bush is in the darkest days of his presidency right now as his polls continue to dwindle. Bad polling numbers won't change Bush's mind about anything, but they will weaken him by their influence on Congress members up for re-election. And it's not too hard to demonstrate that Bush and Cuellar aren't exactly mortal enemies.
Another factor is the blogosphere. These search pages from Google and MSN after entering the names of Cuellar and Rodriguez demonstrate that liberal bloggers are killing Cuellar. The incumbent's problem is that conservative bloggers aren't much occupied with Cuellar. They've got their own issues to address in the Republican Party.
Cuellar's got some other troubles that aren't going to help with Democrats. Apparently, he mostly cooperated with Tom DeLay's redistricting play, and now, of course, DeLay faces legal problems for the financing of the redistricting, not to mention primary challenges from Republicans.
And Rodriguez, who needs a strong turnout in Bexar County, evidently is getting it. But the endorsements from the top two newspapers covering the district are split, with the San Antonio Express-News favoring Cuellar and the Austin American-Statesman recommending Rodriguez.
