Don’t fall for Deeds’ crazy claims
Published: September 28, 2009
Updated: September 28, 2009
In an astonishing display of duplicity, Creigh Deeds has started running radio ads claiming that Bob McDonnell has previously supported all sorts of tax increases on everything, and that Deeds will be a champion of low taxes.
This, after Deeds previously voted for the two biggest tax increases in Virginia’s history. He voted for 19 separate tax hikes on just one day last year. He voted to raise the gas tax 30 percent back when gas was over $4 a gallon! In this campaign, Deeds has already gone on record as supporting a gas tax increase if he is elected!
Bob McDonnell is a true conservative. He has consistently supported low taxes and government prudence with your tax money. Recently, he put out a specific plan for addressing Virginia’s transportation needs without raising taxes.
Deeds is a true tax-and-spend liberal. His only transportation plan is to raise the gas tax and then figure out how to spend it. Liberals can’t be honest with the people about their high-tax, big-intrusive government, cut-the-military, more-welfare, socialist policies, because then they wouldn’t be elected. So they deceive.
Obama campaigned by saying he would cut taxes for 95 percent of the people, which was just not true. He has never proposed or voted for a tax reduction bill. When he lets the Bush tax cuts expire, almost everyone will see a tax increase. His trillions of dollars in new government spending can only be paid for with massive tax increases on everyone. He has supported tax increases to fund government-run health care.
Deeds is now trying to pull the same tax trick: Tell the people one thing, and after you get in office, do the exact opposite. Don’t fall for it.
Jessee Ring
Pulaski
Advertisement
Reader Reactions
Wayne, I’m fully aware of who writes headlines but you couldn’t tell that from my post. Oversight on my part. Entirely fair to call me on it. I should add that letter writers or columnists are free to submit suggested headlines and sometimes they are used.
He does say that Deeds claims “Bob McDonnell has previously supported all sorts of tax increases on everything” and “Deeds will be a champion of low taxes”.
That was in his lead paragraph. But he never substantiates any of it. Instead he goes on the attack of Deeds. If you are going to open with such claims “whether they are “crazy” or not, it’s sort of traditional that you back that up somewhere during your letter.
And you have to admit after looking at what cartoon was included in today’s paper that sure looked like it supported the letter, it is hard to tell the difference between the letter writer and the editor.
On flyers- I’ve not gotten any from the Deeds campaign. I got one from the Dem Party of VA that you might take as negative. It was headlined “It’s not just what McDonnell wrote, it’s what he did”. It listed a few issues and took quotes from his thesis and compared them side by side with how he voted. That seems fair. They even listed the link to McDonnell’s thesis on McDonell’s website.
Oh, and there was another mailer from the NEA that compared the two candidates on school funding, vouchers, and teacher pay. What’s wrong with that?
If you want positives, both candidates have plenty of their plans on various issues on their websites.
You write: “do not falsely accuse Mr. McDonnell of initiating or sustaining the “mud-slinging” in this campaign.“
Where did I even mention Mr. M’s name in my short post?
On the ps. I can’t recall mentioning the address of any letter writer but I wouldn’t be surprised if I had. It is not so much that the distance is so important but it often makes it appear that they really were just fishing for a paper to print their letter.
For example, a lady from WI wrote yesterday about a B&B in culp. she stayed at. That is fine. What is Mr. Ring’s connection to Culpeper other than the paper prints a lot of letters? Of course, he’s free to try to get his letter printed but I’d much rather hear from people in the vicinity rather than that far away. Do you really want to see letters from CA dealing with the presidential campaign? We had that last fall.
rjma-
The editor of the newspaper writes headlines, NOT the writer of the article/letter. You, of all people, should know that. Also, the word “crazy” does not appear in the body of the letter in question at all, so criticizing the writer for not providing one specific example of a crazy claim is unreasonable.
The writer did mention radio ads in which Mr. Deeds makes claims regarding Mr. McDonnell’s record on taxes. Some specificity on his part would have been helpful. However, if the ads mentioned by the writer are anything like the Deeds TV ads I have seen recently, then your “smear campaign” comment is directed at the wrong party (person, not necessarily political).
Thus far I have not seen one POSITIVE ad or message from the Deeds campaign - not one advertisement with a “Here is my plan, here are MY beliefs, and this is what I will do as governor” message. All I have seen from him are ads telling me how evil, anti-woman and anti-abortion McDonnell is. I have seen a couple of attack ads from the McDonnell side also (“know him by his words, know him by his deeds”); but I have seen MORE of the “here I am and this is my plan” ads. Disagree with him if you want to, but please do not falsely accuse Mr. McDonnell of initiating or sustaining the “mud-slinging” I this campaign.
Or, if you are going to make such an assertion, please provide more examples than a few letters to the editor from private individuals.
PS – On a side note, while I freely admit that I do not notice and read each and every one of your posts to this board, I do not remember seeing you comment on the distance a particular letter writer lives from Culpeper unless you happen to disagree with that writer. In the interest of fairness, I would ask that you either refrain from mentioning the location of all letter writers’ domiciles (unless geographic location is directly relevant to the actual topic at hand, of course), or at least offer the same comment/criticism of all “out-of-towners” whose letters and/or columns show up in the paper.
rjma….let them have it! I am so happy to read your posts….I know it is hard to stay ahead of the “Party of No.“ They think that they have all of the answers, but never put anything forward. They sure kept quiet for the previous 8 years when Mr. Wonderful was running the show, and got us into this mess.
OK. The headline says “crazy claims”. The letter from some guy over 200 miles away from Culpeper does not give a single specific example of a “crazy claim” nor does he attempt to refute it. All he does is the typical Republican smear campaign. Note that the editors backed this up with their cartoon.
Advertisement