What do you call it when someone puts out a falsehood in a campaign, gets corrected on the matter, but then continues to use said falsehood?
I call it fucking lying. Not sure about you.
Steve Austria and his campaign manager Brad Mascho continue to push this story about Sharen Neuhardt “harboring an illegal” right on the front page of their site. Even though the entire thing has been proven absolutely false. Over and over and over. Maybe someone in the press can ask them why they continue to lie to the voters of the 7th.
According to court records, Umohoza is currently in the country legally. He was granted a temporary stay on June 24, 2005, by a U.S. District Court judge in southern Ohio. And most recently, a magistrate judge, Sharon Ovington, recommended last month that he be allowed to stay in the country, calling Umohoza “the type of person — hardworking, intelligent, ambitious, law-abiding — who would normally be expected to provide positive contributions to American society.â€
I call on Brad Mascho to immediately remove from Steve Austria’s campaign website any lie that either states or intimates that Sharen Neuhardt “harbored an illegal alien”.
Anything less and Brad Mascho and Steve Austria can still be considered fucking liars. I’ll await word.
Oh, and I wish Matt Hurley would correct the record on his blog so we wouldn’t have to know it for being a lying, shilling, oppo outlet for the GOP. Do the right thing Matt Hurley!
So that’s the story, right? The Republicans are going to try to scare the people of the 7th with stories of how some illegal alien is on the loose in their district and – GASP – he’s one of them there African types that commits the crimes! And it’s all Sharen Neuhardt’s fault!
These people are disgusting. Jeff has more at ODB. The bottom line is this kid escaped a hell none of us can possibly imagine, was graciously aided by the Neuhardt family, and is caught in a bureaucratic nightmare that threatens to send him back to a place where he would surely be killed. Sharen’s family is not going to let that happen and all of us – wingnut bloggers and GOP candidates included – should defend this as a UNIQUELY American thing to do.
Do the Republicans even remember what is inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty?
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
Steve Austria and Matt Hurley apparently don’t want America to be American. They don’t want a lifting of the lamp. They want to attack the tired and the poor. They’d rather score points using the tempest-tossed as cannon fodder in political campaigns than to take the time to live up to the very promise that birth in this country has afforded them. They’d rather soil the poetry of Emma Lazarus than live up to the ideals upon which we all stand.
It’s almost as if Matt Hurley and the rest of his disgusting excuses for humanity have never seen Hotel Rwanda. Asshats. I suppose it’s the Christian in them that allows them to attack a political opponent by using a genocide refugee they helped have a future. Wonder what Jesus would do. I know! Spread rumor and innuendo while ignoring unconstitutional immigration laws.
That they attack this kid to score political points is shameless and un-American. Hurley and friends should be ashamed. Look for Bizzy to pick up on this story along with Nixguy. Both of whom will somehow blame this kid for the entire genocide I’m sure.
Neuhardt’s campaign is not taking this lightly. Their statement:
“Steve Austria knows his campaign is desperate and he will do or say anything to get elected, including cowardly personal attacks. He’s stooped so low as to attack Sharen’s family for standing up and doing what’s right,†said Jessica Kershaw, Communications Director for the Neuhardt Campaign. “Austria’s errand boys pushed this cowardly attack and in doing so are attempting to make a victim of the Rwandan tragedy a victim again.â€
Austria and his Washington cronies unleashed an attack on Ishema Umuhoza, a political refugee who fled the Rwandan genocide at 11 years old. He lives in the United States legally as he waits for the federal courts to review his petition for political asylum.
“This smear attempt is telling of Steve Austria’s true character,†said Kershaw. “It is the worst kind of political mudslinging and is reminiscent of the smears John McCain endured in 2000.â€
State Sen. Steve Austria (R-Beavercreek) has touted his a 97% pro-business voting record and his heavily PAC-funded congressional campaign gets big support from business and nothing from labor. Overall he has a pretty poor voting record as far as labor is concerned, having voted against raising the minimum wage, against fair treatment for workers injured on the job, and for making it harder for state correctional workers to organize.
It’s pandering during a holiday that encompasses many things Steve Austria probably doesn’t support. You know. Labor organizing, minimum wage, sick days, fair treatment of injured workers. It’s an attempt by a patsy Republican who seeks to grab a seat during GOP musical chairs in a gerrymandered district.
Dave Staley at NixGuy.com tries to carry the GOP water (he’s a good waterboy) by claiming 1. That Joe Biden once didn’t cite a source in a speech (not noting, however, that he did many times before in similar speeches) and 2. That this is not technically illegal.
Though Biden had previously cited Kinnock as the source for the formulation many times before, he made no reference to the original source at the August 23 debate in question.
The facts here are that the GOP candidate not only got lazy, but tried to persuade voters that he gives a damn about workers on their day. Sharen Neuhardt gives a damn and she doesn’t need plagiarized columns to prove it. The Xenia Gazette should issue a correction or update noting the original source of the content.
