Surprise - Another Dishonest Attack From Paul Hackett

Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) is announcing his candidacy today in Ohio, and - big surprise - Paul Hackett used the occassion to throw out yet another in a pattern of misleading lines of attack. In the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Hackett basically tries to blame Brown for the last decade of GOP rule and the corresponding economic policies that have been disastrous. This, even though Brown's career has been spent almost entirely in the minority party in the House.

In a weak attempt to echo Ronald Reagan, Hackett says, "You ask yourself if you are better off today than 11 years ago when Mike DeWine was first elected, or when Sherrod Brown was first elected."

That's really disgusting. There have been, bar none, no Members of Congress more committed to the cause of economic justice than Sherrod Brown. Beyond that, Brown was elected in 1992, and Republicans took over in 1994, meaning he spent all of two years in the majority, and those two years he was a lowly freshman. Yet Hackett is trying to blame the GOP record on Brown. That's the equivalent of blaming Paul Hackett for all the things that have gone wrong in the Bush administration's Iraq War policy. No one would do that. It would be dishonest. It would be reprehensible. And it would have no place in a Democratic primary. The same goes for these kinds of disgusting attacks that Hackett is throwing out there.

Look, I'm all for spirited primaries and campaigns, and in this post, I am respecting the pledge I made to focus my writing on this race on issues. That's what this is about - issues. Because what we have here is one Democrat deliberately trying to deceive the public about another Democrat's record on the issues - and that should should be sickening to ALL Democrats, whether you support Hackett or Brown.

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