Chairman Dowdy began the program by saying why he’s a Democrat, and proud of it. He spoke of Roosevelt’s role in national recovery from the Great Depression and his leadership of the Allies during World War II, as well as Harry Truman’s role in that same conflict plus the passage of the GI Bill during that administration. Dowdy talked about the role of General Marshall during the Truman years, and the Marshall Plan that helped rebuild a world devastated by war. He talked about the hopefulness of the Kennedy administration in working for freedom around the world and the expansion of the human frontier with our moves into space.

Chairman Dowdy also talked about the differences between Democratic ideas and those of the opposition party. He pointed to the fiscal responsibility of the Clinton administration that left us with billions of dollars in surplus, lost by the following Republican administration. He talked about the great advances in environmental protection begun and then continued by Democrats, while for many Republicans even the admission that there just might be some problems with global climate change seems to be an impossibility. Dowdy talked about those jobs that a government must do, like care for its wounded soldiers, airmen, sailors, and Marines, and how “outsourcing” to private interests had undermined that ability at Walter Reed Hospital and in other areas.

Moving to the local scene, Chairman Dowdy showed how the “I’ll scratch your back if you’ll scratch mine” of privatization had effected Mississippi. He pointed out that Sen. Robertson, who had voted in the last session in favor of raising taxes on cigarettes, had changed his position in this session, and asked if Robertson’s role as a legal administrator of Katrina grants and the money his firm makes from that had swung him behind Gov. Barbour’s refusal to move on those taxes. Dowdy asked why a successful tobacco education and cessation program like Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi was a bad idea because it lacked legislative oversight, yet the management of Federal grant money for rebuilding was – according to Governor Barbour – much better managed with no such legislative oversight.

From the beginning of his presentation, Chairman Dowdy developed a theme – when you get in your car and want to go forward, you put the car in “D.” If you want to go backward, you put the car in “R.” In just that way – to move forward, you need Democrats, but if you want to go backwards, pick a Republican.

Chairman Herring, of the Republican Party, wasted no time in proving Dowdy’s point. After beginning with a couple of choice quotes from past Democratic leaders, Herring began a period of not so much touting Republicans in the state and nation as slamming Democrats – from the past. It was soon clear that the reason Bush is a “good President” is because he’s not Bill Clinton, and that Governor Barbour’s real strength is that he’s not Ronnie Musgrove.

Mr. Herring worked hard to build on what he hoped were his audience’s fears – crime, drugs, illegal immigration, and a number of other bogeymen. What the Mississippi Legislature would or could do about illegal immigration remained a mystery; why, if this is a statewide problem, criminal activity in the streets of Jackson isn’t something to hold against Governor Barbour – unless Ronnie Musgrove is behind all that – was equally mysterious.

Finally speaking in favor of Barbour rather than against Musgrove, Herring pointed out that Barbour was deeply concerned about education. Yes. Chairman Herring said that, and said it of the man who in recent days has said that “no budget is better than a bad budget” when it comes to funding programs for at-risk children in our schools. That’s right – the schools Barbour cares so much about that he’d rather sacrifice them than take up the deficit spending his national compatriots are so fond of, and the ones where at-risk children are at risk of becoming almost completely unsuited for anything other than raising Cain in the streets of Jackson.

Chairman Herring offered all this without a trace of irony and seemed surprised by the laughter that met such claims.

Herring talked with pride about how Barbour had managed the state budget (a legislative activity) by cutting the sort of spending that supports programs that Herring insists Barbour cares for so deeply. The implication was clear – Barbour held off for three years on properly funding the MAEP so he could balance a budget, and it’s just as clear that for Barbour and his party, those numbers – those abstractions – mean much, much more than the people counted with those numbers.

In fact – two things best sum up Chairman Herring’s remarks. In the general effort to support the present administrations, national and state, he was either beating on folks who are no longer in the game, or giving out numbers that made no real sense. Fear, and fuzzy math.

At the end of the program there was a chance for questions from the audience. Democrats present were eager to speak with both Chairmen, and the result was (for the most part) good questions and good – or at least telling – answers. The Republicans present were strangely quiet, not just for the Q&A, but throughout the program, giving rather reserved applause for Herring in all the places you’d expect.

The evening ended with a young woman, the wife of a man who’s done two tours in Iraq and is now in Afghanistan, asking what the Chairmen present thought about Democratic efforts in Congress to cut off funding for the war in Iraq.

Dowdy answered well, if only because his concern was so clearly genuine, but I didn’t feel he was as ready for that question as he should have been – anyone should have seen that sort of question coming, whether from a spouse or anyone else. The whole thing is terrifically difficult, fraught with emotion, and impossible to answer quickly without seeming glib and, in the process, insincere and thoughtless.

For all that, Dowdy’s answer was at least better than Herring’s, who really said no more than some rah-rah about winning the war, and in terms we don’t really even hear from President Bush these days. Those remarks from Herring got what I think the most reserved applause from Republicans in a very reserved night on their part. I guess if you don’t really have much going for you, you’re not going to really have much to say about it.