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October 29, 2004

Wetterling Lies

I heard the new Patty Wetterling spots today.

In among the "Mark Kennedy hurt our feelings" palaver came this little bit of misleading selective context:

Mark Kennedy even voted for a 23% national sales tax, which would also eliminate the mortgage deduction...".
Naturally, the ad didn't mention that it would also eliminate the income tax!.

Patty Wetterling; the candidate for the ignorant, misinformed and gullible.

Posted by Mitch at October 29, 2004 07:59 AM | TrackBack
Comments

They said she was gullible -- and she believed them.

Posted by: Craig Westover at October 29, 2004 10:57 AM

Mitch, that's a parking ticket.

And besides, Mark Kennedy went negative first.

I will expand when I have more time, but I think Kennedy just slit his own throat. Oh, he'll win reelection in his district forever--it's too right-leaning for him to lose. But going negative against Patty Wetterling--especially when he had a 20-point lead? That's unforgiveable, and I think it will hurt him when he's running against Sen. Bunker two years from now.

Posted by: Jeff Fecke at October 29, 2004 11:36 AM

Argh. I got into an argument with my girlfriend about Patty Wetterling. She said she's going to vote for her entirely because of Jacob. I said that was a stupid reason to vote for her. I didn't get laid that night. I'm still mad at Patty about that, and even a little mad at Jacob.

Posted by: Ryan at October 29, 2004 11:44 AM

We sympathized with the bereaved mother, even as she turned her son's disappearance into a public mission. But as she attempts now to marshal that sympathy for election to public office, we demure. We regret the apparent exploitation of her personal tragedy for political gain and we will not support her under any circumstances. By any standard, her judgment is clearly impaired, for whatever reason. She is not qualified.

Posted by: Eracus at October 29, 2004 12:29 PM

Nick Clooney, George's dad, has phony phone polls going in Kentucky about his opponent's support (along with the President's) of the same tax idea. He also did not mention the elimination of the income tax and snowed my wife into pushing the wrong button on the phone. Not that that means anything.

They just think we're stupid.

Posted by: The other Terry at October 29, 2004 01:22 PM

I am sick and tired of all the Patty Wetterling ads along the genre of "poor Patty who's being attacked by Mark Kennedy".

She doesn't have the qualifications, and the only reason she has gotten as far as she has is because of her child safety activism (which she should be lauded for). I think a good deal of her support is coming from people who feel sorry for her losing her son.. Since when did having your son kidnapped qualify you for public office?

Posted by: peter at October 29, 2004 02:33 PM

This same B.S. is being pulled on every Republican across the country who has even hinted that they someday might contemplate considering support of the concept of the so-called 'fair tax.'

Besides Wetterling, Teresa Daly is also running pretty much the same ad against John Kline. However, you may not have noticed Daly’s $750,000+ worth of ads, because they have all the quality and persuasiveness of that Flock of Seagulls video where the lead-singer is spinning around in a room full of mirrors…but that’s a whole different discussion.

They are using this same crap against DeMint in the SC Senate race and in seven other house contests, according to the Washington Post - three House districts in Texas and one each in Georgia, Indiana, Kansas and North Carolina.

I don’t think this has been reported elsewhere, but there is an ever-coveted Minnesota connection here, as the very first occurrence of this attack came right here in our very own 2nd District. You may recall that in 2002, Bill Luther attacked John Kline on this very issue. To make matters worse, it was an obvious ploy to entice otherwise GOP-leaning citizens into voting for Luther’s sham ‘No New Taxes’ candidate – Sam Garst.

So there you have it…Patty Wetterling and Teresa Daly are now using an attack line that was started in order to further perpetuate one of the greatest frauds in Minnesota history.

When they both lose by 20+ points despite outspending the incumbents, justice will be served.

Posted by: George at October 29, 2004 06:28 PM

I live in the Kansas district where this ploy is being used. I especially like the one with the picture of the wooden shoes that says "Of all the things one could import from Europe, Kris Kobach (our candidate) wants to import their socialist tax system."

Oh, that's a riot. Like the Democrats are opposed to socialism or something. :-)

Posted by: Wally at October 29, 2004 07:59 PM

Sorry, I must have missed something in this post. Where was the lie? Or do you just define "lie" in some new way I'm not familar with?

Posted by: Mark Williams at October 29, 2004 10:19 PM

Mark,

Saying "Mark Kennedy wants a 23% sales tax and the mortgage deduction" while omitting "in exchange for repealing the income tax, doing away with 90% of the IRS and our byzantine tax code" qualifies as a lie in my book.

Posted by: mitch at October 29, 2004 10:53 PM

Misleading? Maybe. Incomplete? Yes. Lie? Not unless you've got your own personal definition. However, it plays well for your audience, so it's not like I expect you to be accurate or anything.

Posted by: Mark Williams at October 30, 2004 12:24 AM

Mark,

When I was growing up, when someone made an affirmative statement that was only tenable by leaving out a key piece of something, it was called a "lie of omission". Wetterling's ad implies that Kennedy would raise taxes - it's a lie.

You can rationalize it all you want, but it's a lie.

As much sympathy as I feel for wetterling, I hope she gets crushed on Tuesday.

Posted by: mitch at October 30, 2004 08:44 AM
hi