Being speechless isn\’t a very good trait for a blogger, but I have to admit that a completely incomprehensible \”press release\” issued today by Democratic state senate candidate Kathleen Vinehout has me completely perplexed.
We all know that running a campaign is stressful, but it appears that Vinehout has completely lost her mind. In her \”release,\” she writes a rambling four page poem about her opponent, incumbent Ron Brown of Eau Claire, that simply defies description.
Has Wisconsin ever seen a candidate melt down so completely? Her semi-lucid release reads like it was written while she was on acid. In it, she accuses Brown of somehow being in cahoots with Saudi Arabia to lower gas prices so he can get re-elected, she attempts to take shots at a primary opponent (Chris Danou) that she defeated two weeks ago, and she takes lame shots as Senator Dave Zien (whose name she misspells throughout), who is running in a completely different district.
My description can\’t even do this justice, so just read it for yourself. It is proof positive that Kathleen Vinehout isn\’t fit to serve in the State Legislature. I\’m not sure I\’d even let her near my kid. Is she going to demand that all their debates be done in haiku? Are her radio ads going to be in iambic pentameter?
The flip-flop she references in her campaign poem deals with her position on abortion. Vinehout, a Catholic, always considered herself pro-life – she was active in the Catholic Rural Life Conference. However, as her Democratic primary opponent pointed out, her position on abortion changed completely when she began running for the State Legislature.
In 2004, Vinehout gave an interview to the National Catholic Reporter, where she said – and I am not making this up:
Meanwhile, as Vinehout plans her bid for office, she worries that support from traditional Democratic backers will not be forthcoming because of her antiabortion views. \”I\’ve been told that if I run as a \’pro-life Democrat\’ that I won\’t get any union money, Sierra Club money or environmental money,\” says Vinehout…
Vinehout plans to soft-peddle her pro-life stance when she runs for office. \”If somebody asked, \’How do you feel [about abortion],\’ I\’d tell them,\” said Vinehout, but she will go out of her way to avoid the \”pro-life Democrat\” label.
So, in other words, she\’s ashamed of her position, and is willing to switch it if it helps her get more special interest (union, environmental) money. She even recently spoke at a Women\’s Choice event, where she was endorsed. So fetuses need to watch their backs – their life is only worth something to Kathleen Vinehout in the years she\’s not running for the State Senate and needs special interest cash. Better start up FetusPAC and give her money if you want to stand a chance.
So if Vinehout is so willing to change her position on a fundamental moral issue like abortion to chase campaign money, what do you think she\’s going to do on issues of taxes and spending? Ironically, it was Vinehout who may have terminated her own campaign today with her incomprehensible press release. She won\’t be missed.
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