Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Local Politics: More Eeeevil Burner

The GOP mailer bombing of Democratic Challenger Darcy Burner is continuing, and they aren't getting much better, either in presentation (awful) or in content (minimal). Now, the slimeballs that are putting these out ...

Pardon? I'm using the word "slimeballs"? Isn't that a little over the top? Not really, since the folks responsible for these pustulent extrusions of the US Mail are the National Repulbican Congressional Committee, who are responsibile for putting into office (and keeping in office) GOP candidates. And they and in particular their committee head, Tom Reynolds (NY), are hip-deep in covering up the abusive, predatory actions of a fellow GOP Congressman from Florida. Like the Catholic heirarchy covering up predatory priests, they were hiding the truth, keeping you in the dark, minimizing the damage, and keeping a molester in their midst, but WANT YOU TO TRUST THEM when they tell you Darcy Burner is evil.

Yeah, I think in this case, "slimeballs" is appropriate.

This leaves me with the goggle-jawed astonishment I have not felt since the first pictures came out of Abu Ghraib, showing stuff that would make Mapplethorpe blush. I mean, do you HAVE to be a shorteye perv to get work as a conservative politician these days? And I say this knowing the Spokane just went through the same exact thing with their mayor - what gives?

Right. Back to Darcy. She is eeeeevil, according to the ever-trustworthy NRCC because (gasp) she wants to raise your taxes (Duh-duh-DUH!). This pair of badly-laid out mailers (and I would make another Intern-with-Photoshop joke here, but now I'm afraid that I'm hitting too close to the mark) are light on content and heavy on the fear factor. They pull a pair of comments from Burner off the radio (true? accurate? beats the heck outa me - they were on the radio, and the mailers don't give the quotes, only helpfully summarize them in such a way to spread fear and loathing). And they are presented in such an obtuse faction, that you would have to have an expert on taxes to figure out if they had any base.

Oddly enough, I HAVE an expert on taxes at hand, so I asked her. What about the one that starts "2,092 Rea$on$ to Vote Again$t Darcy Burner" (pity she didn't have an "s" in her name, but they missed turning the "c" into a cents sign - maybe the font they were using didn't have one). The Lovely Bride, my tax expert, shrugged her shoulders and said "There's no way of knowing, given the information they give. Its all smoke and no heat."

Hmmm. How about this one, with the bites taken out of a quarter and a note that Darcy wants to take a bite out your paycheck (Boo! Scared yah!). Even though it has LESS information than the previous one, the LB had an opinion - "Reconfiguring income for SS taxes would affect your paycheck - If your regular salary is more than 100k or so. For most people, it has no effect. They don't mention that." Ah yes, the GOP, wanting you to get upset over the hardships of the wealthy.

Both mailers encourage you to "Vote No on Darcy Burner" (who is a Negative Campaigner, they shrilly announce), but give you no clue on who to say "YES" to. That is probably is because their GOP Candidate, Dave Reichert, has been pretty much invisible on the radio, in the mailers, and even on the floor of the House. And I don't think he's coming up for air any time soon - he is in the uneviable position of either being dumb or evil. If he didn't know about the problems between his fellow congressmen and house pages, he is stupid or willfully blind - not something you want to admit if you made your bones for your current position as Law Enforcement Officer. If he knew, he's guilty of keeping a dirty cop on the beat. So expect more silence from the GOP candidate as the GOP's molestor-funded message machine continues to try to keep reform out of the House. And though Reichert's people have at least scrubbed his site of pictures showing him and Congressman Foley together, they did not do it before the progressive site HA got a set for themselves.

More later,

UPDATE:Another one in the mailbox today! More of the same - shoddy layout, clip art (this time of an empty wallet and hand grabbing dollar bills, sourced but unreported statements, and we're clipping her head shot tighter and tighter, almost as if she's MOVING towards you, her hands outstretched to take those singles from your hand! And of course, one of the accusations is that she'll give tax breaks to Oil Companies! Gasp! What Republican would EVER do that! Meanwhile, the head of the committee extruding this mess has taken to making press appearances with underage children, in the hopes that reporters will not bring up S-E-X in front of them.