Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Democratic Candidate Uses "Robocall" To Promote Tea Party Candidate

I came across this story from Big Government's serial misinformer Jim Hoft - a Democratic California congressional candidate was found to have released a "robocall" that promoted a tea party candidate in what people believe is an attempt to split the conservative vote.

I am afraid that I have to agree with Hoft - somewhat.  I disagree with the candidate, Palm Springs Mayor Steve Pougnet, use of the automatic callings to push the candidacty of one of his opponents to hurt another one of his opponents, but I don't believe the Democrats are too blame - Hoft claims that the Democrats are "slimy" and that if Republicans were guilty of doing the same thing they would make national headlines.  That is an easy accusation to make, especially when Hoft provides no sources - only assumptions.

He could have easily mentioned stories that involved alleged Republican meddling with Democratic candidates, like that conservative guy out west that was pushing homeless people onto the ballot, or South Carolina's own Alvin Greene, who was the man who surprisingly won South Carolina's Democratic primary election amidst claims that he was a Republican plant - a story that most major news sources refused to believe.

Although those two stories are very different from Pougnet's robocalls (they are actually newwsworhty), it shows just how lazy Hoft is - he could have gone that extra mile to prove his point but he didn't.  There was something else about this story that I thought was interesting - the article from The Desert Sun that Hoft cites has an interesting comment by the candidate Pougnet's robocall promotes - Bill Lussenheide.

“I wasn't good enough for them to want to have me in the debate,” Lussenheide said. “I don't like being used in what they see as a convenient fashion.”

While Hoft's article only attacks Democrat Steve Pougnet, both candidates are to blame for what can be seen as electioneering - by excluding third party candidates from the debates, major party candidates attempt to manipulate those votes in their favor.

My opinion - Hoft is wrong, Pougnet is wrong, and the Republicans who sought to keep the tea party out of the debate are wrong.

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