Just across the mighty Columbia from us, Vankruger's own VanBlog was the first to break a story that has the Washington blogs almost universally discussing it*: the state GOP is up to really foul political behavior again. What are they doing? Sending doctored-up sex offender notices to residents in targeted statehouse districts. What are they being targeted with? A "soft on sex crimes" allegation, using WA Democrats' vote on a bill introduced on opening day of the session, directly to the floor and voted on quickly. VanBlog noted it when it happened last week, and everyone thought that was pretty outrageous and timewasting to begin with.
But following their Congressional daddies' lead with the "Murtha Amendment," they immediately sought to politically press the results of the vote as a wedge issue, using fear as the hook. And what's the bait? Check it out:
Where does one start? Well, two state legislators weren't pleased at all, and quickly penned an indignant response. One of them wrote Goldy at Horse's Ass and explained the reaction in his district:
The postcards were sent into our district as well. Most of the calls that I’ve received (at my home and at my office)have been from people who are angry about the cards – feeling that the Republicans were politicizing the issue of protecting our kids. We have had a couple of folks who called to ask if they could get the address of this sex offender – people who were concerned that it was an accurate portrayal.
Curiously endowed with the identity of Washington's Willie Horton is Stefan Sharkansky, who seems to be going down with the ship, rhetorically speaking. It's a level 3 offender in Pierce County. Which is awfully curious, since so far there aren't any reported sightings of the flyer in Pierce. Walla Walla, sure. Clark, right. Kitsap, yep. But not Pierce. Maybe it's clones! This guy must use a fortune in gas going back and forth across the state, frightening people--but there's a really bitter irony that the one group that might actually BENEFIT from this fraudulent piece of mailed feces, never saw it.
You might have figured that after being burned by the Lori Sotelo registration challenge fiasco, the state Republicans would just try to lie low until primary time. Nope, they needed a topper. They went ahead and took a chunk of money out of the leadership PAC to fund a fraudulent, literally fearmongering postcard and cable buy. These "caucus" repositories for money are nothing but a giant scam. They are even more loosely controlled than individual PACs, and just flow money like a river. Notice that nobody on either side of the aisle in DC had any suggestions for curbing the communal slush fund trough...
*and now Blue Oregon today on this side of the creek, consarnit! I promised myself I'd cover this during lunch today, then got caught up in other things. By evening, that Chisholm chap had laid down the scoop.
--TJ
neener neener!
Posted by: Kari Chisholm | January 24, 2006 at 01:04
Ok, this is the first time I've actually seen the photo, and I want to know how they got Tom Delay to put on that shirt, and why they used his picture for every single district.
What districts were hit?
Posted by: Chad Lupkes | January 24, 2006 at 12:27