Monday, October 27, 2008

Advice To Pete Olson: If You Find Yourself in a Hole, Stop Digging.

I would really like to write about something else today, and fully meant to, but it seems that the antics going on in Pete Olson’s congressional campaign continually prevent me from branching out to other deserving issues.

Why? Because this Virginia voter fraud allegation lodged against Pete Olson keeps on yielding fruit that get more bizarre with each passing day.

It seems that the Olson campaign has engaged some DC lawyers to send a letter to Houston area media markets warning them that if they continue airing the now infamous TV ad produced by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), they are exposing their respective stations “to potential liability should you continue to air it.”

They are telling the TV stations that the ad that they are airing contains false and defamatory statements. From Fort Bend Now:

“‘Since the DCCC advertisement contains false and misleading statements, your station must cease airing this advertisement immediately,’ the letter said. ‘If you insist on airing this advertisement, we request an explanation of the basis of your decision in law or station policy.’”
Now here is the leap of logic that led them to send this letter.

“The letter went on to refute the allegations against Olson, citing an Oct. 16 article in the D.C.-based publication ‘Roll Call’ in which Olson denied taking part in any illegal vote. Olson’s denials cited in excerpts from the article, McGinley claimed, proved the DCCC knew the allegations were false and yet paid to air the commercial anyway.”
That’s right, you read it correctly.

The allegations are false, and the DCCC knows it, because Pete Olson said so.

You know, I am like every other human being on Earth. I have a belly button that proves I was born of a woman.

But that didn’t happen yesterday.

So let me get this right. The DCCC cobbled up this ad knowing the ad’s allegations were false, paid TV stations to air the ad, and as a result the stations may incur liability for doing so because Pete Olson says the ad is, in the parlance of the day, inaccurate.

But wait, it gets better.

It seems that this letter caused local TV station KHOU to temporarily pull the ad while its lawyers studied the ad’s content. Then they decided to put it back on the air, finding no impropriety on their part.

In short, each and every TV station in the Houston media market has decided not to be intimidated by 11th hour Republican bluffs, attempts by Pete Olson to remove information on this matter from the public view.

In essence, Pete Olson has placed himself in the impossible position of being seen as the candidate who is trying to hide the truth from the public. The allegations could be errors of mistaken identity for all I know, but Pete Olson has taken this whole argument to a new level.

In citing the allegations as lies, and then trying to get them taken off the air, Olson has just proven the DCCC and Lampson campaigns’ points: he’s just like Tom DeLay.

The hole that Pete Olson has dug for himself is getting deeper and deeper because no one will tell Pete to stop digging and put that shovel down.

No comments: