RICHMOND, Va. – This is the first time anyone in the media has dared challenge Virginia Congressman Eric Cantor on his use of a bogus web site to make it appear his main campaign attack on opponent David Brat is based on the research of an independent, truthful organization.
In a direct mail attack piece “Paid for by Cantor for Congress,” the incumbent rips “David Brat’s Liberal Record” citing as a source WECHECKTHEFACTS.COM.
Professor Brat, who teaches economics at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, is actually a card-carrying member of the Tea Party, the conservative wing of the conservative GOP! Brat a liberal? Come on Eric, give me a break. You know this is so absurd as to be silly. But you figure Brat doesn’t have the resources to fight back. Probably true.
I concede, politics isn’t for the thin-skinned.
If Brat can’t take the heat, then he needs, as President Harry S. Truman advised, to stay out of the political kitchen. So far Brat seems more the moaner than the fighter.
However, even in the game of politics, Cantor’s use of a bogus web site to make it appear his attacks are based on the research of an independent organization is scrapping the bottom of the barrel.
Really Ray [Ray Allen, Cantor’s political guy who is good at this kind of thing] that’s all you got, that’s the only way to beat Brat, who has no money, no organization, no real backing and no experience in running for office?
Eric Cantor is so weak in his own party that he has to invent a bogus web site? Here is the fact on WECHECKTHEFACTS.COM: It is a web site “Paid for By Cantor for Congress”
That’s right, click on wecheckthefacts.com and you see a big photo of Professor Brat with the label “Liberal College Professor” nearby.
The web site then goes on claim “David Brat’s True Record Exposed.”
It lists six allegedly liberal revelations. At least the picture of the Professor is decent one.
For those not familiar with GOP internal party politics, a liberal is considered about as low a form of political animal as can exist in American politics.
Admittedly, wecheckthefacts.com only accuses Brat of being close to “liberal Governor Tim Kaine.” They could have called Brat an “Obama liberal,” but that would be like giving the first gymnast in an Olympic finals a perfect 10.0.
If a judge gives out a perfect score at the beginning, how can she or he give a later competitor a higher score if that athlete does better?
So Cantor has to reserve the “Obama liberal” charge for later in the campaign. Can we expect to see “Brat the Obama backer” before election day? Probably so.
But being dubbed a “Kaine Liberal” is bad enough among the super-GOP types who will go to the polls in the expected light turnout for the June primary. If they believe Brat has any liberal blood in him at all – even by a mistaken transfusion – they will come to the polls to vote against him.
EXCEPT IT IS ALL BOGUS PROMOTED BY A BOGUS WEBSITE!
It is simply an Internet domain name for the Cantor Campaign’s attack division.
As a legal matter, the web site does say Cantor’s team is paying for it. Given federal law, they would have had no way to hide this fact short of violating some statute.
Meaning the Cantor team isn’t hiding their authorship of the site when you click on. But in the direct mail attack piece, the campaign fails to point out the alleged “truth tellers” about Brat’s “liberal record” is actually the campaign’s own researchers.
The second most powerful person in the House of Representatives resorting to Bogus Internet sites to keep his seat.
Come on Eric, you are better than that, man. This is pathetic, really it is. I am not saying Democrats are perfect by any means. But this kind of thing is really beneath the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, or at least it should be.
Paul Goldman is in no way affiliated with WTVR. His comments are his own, and do not reflect the views of WTVR or any related entity. Neither WTVR nor any of its employees or agents participated in any way with the preparation of Mr. Goldman’s comments.
