[Vision2020] Mudfest

[B. J. Swanson]

Barrett & Roger,

 

Please take heed of the Lewiston Tribune editorial today.  The more you try
to justify your mudslinging, the worse you sound.  You both should be
ashamed.

 

B. J. Swanson

 

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The worst offenders in this year's political mudfest

Jim Fisher

Be patient, folks. By this time Wednesday, the nation's airwaves will be
cleansed of all the sleazy attack ads that have fouled the current election
season, thanks to those outside groups with more money than morals. 

The Democratic and Republican parties. 

Yes, that's right. Most of the ads comprising personal assaults on
candidates' characters have come this year not from groups like the Swift
Boat Veterans for Truth, which slimed presidential candidate John Kerry two
years ago. They have come from the country's two major political parties. 

Candidates have often been able to take the high road in their campaigns,
because their parties are more than willing to step in and do the dirty
work. 

And dirty it has been, according to FactCheck.org. The nonpartisan watchdog
of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania
reports that both parties have become "attack-ad factories" during the
current election season. The National Republican Campaign Committee has
spent $41.9 million attacking Democrats, and $5 million supporting its own
candidates. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has spend $18
million attacking Republicans, and $3.1 million supporting its candidates. 

Not all negative ads hit below the belt, of course, as FactCheck.org points
out. But in its analysis of the ads the parties produced, it found plenty of
low blows. 

"What stood out in the NRCC's ads was a pronounced tendency to be petty and
personal, and sometimes careless with the facts," the organization says. "We
found 29 of the NRCC's ads to be assaults of a personal nature on a
candidate's character or private professional dealings, rather than
critiques of his or her views or votes while in federal, state or local
office." 

And the opposing camp? 

"Democrats are not innocent when it comes to making false or misleading
attacks on personal character, as regular readers of this site are well
aware," the report says. 

In view of this, it might be time to reconsider the party system itself. At
one time, parties were considered wholesome bulwarks of the political
process, imposing some discipline on members and candidates who stepped out
of line. But these days, it is the parties setting the example for deceitful
assaults. 

They should be ashamed. And the American people should stop sending them
money. 

 

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