Paulson Lies…Congratulates Himself For It
David Paulson and the Democrats are in quite the pickle. Governor O’Malley’s approval ratings are in the toilet, Sheila Dixon and her well heeled ex-beau are under investigation by the state prosecutor, the FBI is probing Ulysses “lobbyists have almost no influence on the vote” Currie, and Nat Exum got caught influence peddling with the O’Malley administration, on top of writing amendments to exempt his employer from state regulations.
What’s a Democratic apparatchik to do? Oh yes, whip out the old blame/bash Ehrlich trope.
Paulson’s criticisms of Ehrlich on policy matters–addle brained as they are–are fair. However, his June 17 “The Monday After” stepped way over the line of legitimate criticism into Lillian Hellman territory. To paraphrase the Mary McCarthy’s line about the Stalinist Hellman: every word he writes is a lie, including and and the.
Paulson deliberately omitted key portions of Dee’s call to the Ehrlich’s radio program, in order to paint a false picture. Listen to the call for yourself.
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Instead of admitting what he did, this week Paulson patted himself on the back for his ingenuity.
Paulson points to Laura Vozella’s June 22 Baltimore Sun column and the moonbats at Daily Kos as corroboration for his malfeasance. Excuse me if honest observers put no faith in the moonbats at Daily Kos. However, I eagerly await Paulson’s spin on Vozella’s latest column.
I take it back: Bob and Kendel Ehrlich weren’t cheering on a caller to their radio show who predicted racial warfare if Barack Obama is elected president…
The Ehrlichs did let that hot potato just sit there until it burned right through their political oven mitts. But I think they really were applauding the caller as an independent voter, not as a race-war seer. For anyone who missed it the first time: Someone named Dee called the show June 14, predicting that an Obama presidency would get Muslims, Black Panthers, the Klan and skinheads all jazzed up into a hatefest…
That’s precisely how the exchange went. And I thought, “Gotcha!” So did the state Democratic Party and the Daily Kos blog. Party spokesman David Paulson wrote about the exchange before I did and also cut it off at Vatz’s “Exactly.”
But there was a bit before and after the race-war stuff that changes how it comes across. At least that’s my take now that I’ve gone back and listened again.
Before she launched into the Obama bit, Dee encouraged Ehrlich to run for governor again and to go after young black voters, who she said were less wedded to the Democratic Party than their elders are. Afterward, if you listen past “Exactly,” it’s clear Vatz and the former governor are excited about swing voters, not race warriors.
Vatz: “Exactly. And she’s also talking about a lot of people who are low-intensity, who, when they look at the specifics and look at the evidence, can change around. The question is how many such people are there.”Bob Ehrlich goes on to praise Dee’s point about “generational voting patterns.”
Woulda been nice to hear somebody take issue with the race-war stuff, but I’d say Ehrlichs were only guilty of ducking.
Its a fair point about the Ehrlichs ducking Dee’s inflammatory remarks, but only someone with a vested interest in smearing Ehrlich would do twist the conversation out of context to make into more than what it was. That Paulson did this is undeniable.
It is quite clear to any honest observer, who is not a friend of Paulson or blinkered Democrat partisan, that he omitted pertinent portions of the conversation in order to launch a spurious attack against the Ehrlichs and Rick Vatz.
Paulson’s defense is nothing more than pathetic sophistry and spin. Then again, we get what Doracon pays for.
