William A. Alexander – 10/23/06

This page was last updated on December 14, 2006.

Look at the record; William A. Alexander; Beaver County Times; October 23, 2006.

Mr. Alexander has written at least 18 letters since December 2004, and they all bashed Republicans for something. This letter is more of the same.

Below is a detailed critique of the letter.

“U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart has an ad whining that Jason Altmire was a lobbyist.

“Most of her re-election money is from lobbyists and PACs. She votes with Bush 98 percent of the time, and corporate lobbyists unduly influence his administration’s legislation. This is coming out with Abramoff and Cunningham, etc., singing like canaries, and the GOP Congress trying to hide from it is all the proof anyone should need.”

[RWC] “[C]orporate lobbyists unduly influence his administration’s legislation?” Where’s the proof? In any case, how does this tie to Ms. Hart? If Mr. Alexander has proof Ms. Hart did anything wrong, he should tell us.

While Mr. Alexander wants us to believe all Republicans are corrupt, he appears to forget Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) was caught on videotape accepting a $100,000 bribe and $90,000 of the marked bills was found hidden in his freezer at home.

“Hart was the head of a committee that was supposed to investigate Tom DeLay, even though she had accepted a lot of money from DeLay’s PAC’s and did nothing for months and months.”

[RWC] According to FEC records, Ms. Hart received a $10,000 contribution from Mr. DeLay’s PAC for her 2000 campaign and $5,000 for the 2002 campaign. That’s $15,000 out of a total of $6.1 million, or about 0.2%.

“Eventually, it all came out due to a district attorney in Texas, and DeLay resigned. Now, those in Texas who want to vote for a Republican vote for DeLay since his name is on the ballot. It’s the same in Florida where Republicans must vote for ‘the page stalker’ whose name is on the ballot. Then, the RNC picks who will serve, and this is a democracy?”

[RWC] The last sentence is a lie.

In Texas, Mr. DeLay withdrew after the Republican primary but state law prohibited Republicans from selecting a replacement. As a result, no Republican will appear on the ballot. If a Republican is to win, he will do so as a write-in candidate.

In Florida, the state Republican Party selected Joe Negron to run after Mark Foley withdrew. Since it was too late to change the ballot, a vote for Foley will go to Mr. Negron as will write-in votes for Mr. Negron.

Contrast this with NJ Democrat Robert Torricelli in 2002. When polls indicated he would lose to his Republican opponent, Democrats replaced his name on the ballot despite the fact it violated NJ law. The Democrat replacement won the election.

Regarding “[e]ventually, it all came out due to a district attorney in Texas,” that’s a little misleading. First, Mr. DeLay has not been convicted of anything to date. Second, the subject DA indicted Mr. DeLay only after going through multiple grand juries. In other words, the DA was jury shopping. Third, this is the same DA who had his indictment of another Republican thrown out with prejudice because it was completely baseless.

“Before you vote, consider where this Congress and president have taken us in the last six year [sic]. Do you really want this debacle of economic greed and international incompetence to continue?”

[RWC] Blah, blah, blah.

Finally, you’ll note Mr. Alexander didn’t – couldn’t? – tell us why we should vote for Mr. Altmire. To date, no Hart- and/or Santorum-bashing letters have told us why we should vote for their opponents.