As most Americans are, I too am fed up with political bickering. And because of that I’ve had a transformation in my voting beliefs over the last year and a half. Before, my voting was predicated solely on issues and beliefs. If you were a republican chances are you got my vote. If you said things I liked, you got my vote. Then I realized what got us into this political mess. We were electing people that weren’t trustworthy, we put people in office that lied, that were deceiving and that had no integrity.

I’ve decided I would take an honest and trustworthy democrat over a lying republican any day.

So now when I vote I put more stock into admitting mistakes, if you truly believe you’ve made a mistake, and how you run your campaign, because how you run your campaign is the best indicator for how you’ll run the office you’re vying for.

This new found belief of my came into play recently when Mike Cox, a candidate for governor in my home state of Michigan, released his first television ad. Up to this point in the campaign I had volunteered for Cox, and the experience was interesting. I volunteered during the Mackinac Island Republican Conference, and during the entire duration of the trip it seemed that Cox and his team were uptight about the amount of people on the island wearing Cox t-shirts. They were insanely worried about making Cox look like the most popular candidate, we were told to simply walk around the island with our Cox t-shirts and make it look like he had a lot of supporters. We were all told to arrive at his party early to make it seem as though people were coming to Cox’s party to support him. It all seemed fabricated and disingenuous.

Then the press releases started, I get them delivered to my email inbox. Just about every week there was a new press release attacking Pete Hoekstra. It was getting tiresome, week after week another attack press release. So when the Cox campaign released their first television ad I was hoping for a nice positive piece about what Mike wants to do with the state, instead I was presented with a 30 second ad attacking…you guessed it…Pete Hoekstra.

The first point the ad makes is that Hoekstra “co-sponsored The Bridge to Nowhere.” I found this peculiar considering Hoekstra is a Michigan congressman and “The Bridge to Nowhere” is in Alaska. So I did some light research.

Hoekstra co-sponsored H.R. 3 during the 109th Congress. It was titled the “Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users.” It was a highway transportation appropriations bill that according to the summary from the Congressional Research Service “Authorizes appropriations through FY2009 for highway programs out of the Highway Trust Fund (HTF)” and “Authorizes appropriations for FY2005-FY2009 for administrative expenses of the Federal Highway Administration (FHA)” among many other appropriations. The bill is a necessity, it is one of the constitutional duties of Congress, to appropriate money.

It was a massive bill with over 1,100 sections, and it just so happens that the earmark for the Gravina Island Bridge, or “The Bridge to Nowhere,” was included in the bill. It was an earmark that was part of the bill Hoekstra co-sponsored, along with 79 other Congressmen. Hoekstra sponsored the entire bill, not the earmark. A Congressmen will rarely agree with 100% of a bill they vote on or even co-sponsor, so to attach “The Bridge to Nowhere” to Hoekstra is absurd.

It also turns out that this same bill the Cox campaign slams Hoekstra for co-sponsoring increased Michigan’s return on the gas tax by $286 million a year. If the Cox campaign is going to slam Hoekstra for one small portion of the bill, shouldn’t they applaud his for this positive small portion?

I pointed this fact out to the Cox campaign via their Facebook fan page. It was met with some criticism from frequent anti-Hoekstra Facebook contributors and by campaign worker Tim Phelps. After about 24 hours of exposure on his Facebook fan page, my comments were removed. And after the Cox campaign sent out another press release with the deceptive claim I posted another comment on his fan page calling him out for it, then I was blocked from the page.

I’m not surprised I was blocked from the page, and I’m not even upset that I was, I knew going into the argument that I would be blocked, that’s how politicians work, they run away from serious political debate, at least the ones you shouldn’t vote for do. I’m disappointed that the Cox camp, even after being called out for their deception, continued to publish the statistic. That speaks heavily to their integrity and honesty. And it’s ironic that the new press released called for Hoekstra to admit his spending mistakes, when the Cox campaign can’t even admit their mistake.

The deception continues by claiming, “The year before he decided to run for Governor, the Club for Growth, a group that tracks up-or-down votes on many individual earmarks, gave Congressman Hoekstra an abysmal 20 percent rating on its annual “RePork Card.”

While that is true, it was a masterful job of cherry picking statistics. It’s also true that in 2009 that same RePork Card gave Hoekstra a 97% rating, and the Club for Growth’s overall Congressional Ratings, which rate congressmen on their votes for economic growth, have given Hoekstra a 79% or above every year since 2005. It’s also true that the Club for Growth’s Power Rankings of Congressional Votes places Hoekstra at 43 of 435, pretty impressive.

The Cox campaign is certainly poised in cherry picking facts. And their deception just further proves to me their lack of integrity and honesty.

For the record when Hoekstra or any other candidate releases an attack ad I will research it just like I did with Cox’s ad, and hopefully they will be a little less deceptive. Also, I haven’t made my final choice for who I’m voting for in the republican primary, but I do know that it won’t be Cox. I vote based not only on voting record and beliefs, but on integrity and honesty, and from this continual deception from the Cox campaign, I can tell they have little of both.

I’m also going to try and get a representative from both the Cox and Hoekstra campaigns on the next episode of The Current, so stay tuned for that.

–jb

The May 16 show will also mark the first of many live Sunday evening shows. We will be LIVE every Sunday at 7pm starting May 16. You can interact with the live show in our live show chat room, or by giving us a call on Skype (username TheCurrentPodcast).

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What you need to know…
Dallas sees record snow, 49 states have snowfall
Liberals say snowfall proves global warming
Flashback: Years ago liberals said no snow proves global warming
Obama budget is $3.83 trillion has many tax increases
The tax increases in Obama’s budget
Freed Gitmo detainees head to Yemen

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Our Friday host is Jared Weseman, enjoy!

On this week’s episode we discuss the eminent passage of the health care bill, Obama’s low approval numbers, and a priest that tells his congregation to shoplift.

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Number one, the economy. McCain was leading Obama in most polls by a decent margin before the economy took a tumble, it was only then that Obama was able to distinguish himself from McCain and take over the race. If it wasn’t for the faltering economy, McCain might be our current president.

Number two, President Bush. Obama spent a considerable amount of money and time harping on the fact that a vote for McCain was basically a vote for Bush. The massive amount of dissent for Bush among moderates and moderate democrats gave Obama a huge edge.

That’s why it’s surprising to see this…

Perhaps the greatest measure of Obama’s declining support is that just 50% of voters now say they prefer having him as President to George W. Bush, with 44% saying they’d rather have his predecessor. Given the horrendous approval ratings Bush showed during his final term that’s somewhat of a surprise and an indication that voters are increasingly placing the blame on Obama for the country’s difficulties instead of giving him space because of the tough situation he inherited.

Obama’s had nothing but declining poll numbers lately. At this point in their presidency no president has suffered lower poll numbers. But to see Bush within six points of Obama is simply astounding. If Obama doesn’t turn things around by actually proving economic stimulus (through long term tax cuts) he’s going to be in deep trouble. And in the short term the democrats will be in trouble in 2010.

–jb

NEWS
Copenhagen climate summit: 1,200 limos, 140 private planes
Climate summit produces more CO2 than 60 countries combined for the entire year
Secret Service Report: Presidential security breached 91 times since 1980
Winter storm ready to hit Central United States
Gates: Withdrawal date is just a start

OPINION
Is Harry Reid in Trouble in 2010?
68th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor
Saving the Earth requires posturing
Mainstream Media ignores cop killings
Why the Treasury’s foreclosure modification plan isn’t working

Happy reading!