Liberal hypocrites of the week: John Edwards and certain Washington state Dem lawmakers

Every once in a while, you just have to stop and marvel at the stunning amount of liberal hypocrisy that exists in this country today, most of it committed unchecked. I’ve talked about it numerous times at this blog before, most recently over le affaire de Coulter.

First up today is Dem candidate and former (thank goodness) Senator from NC John Edwards. Brian at Iowa Voice appropriately labels what Edwards did as Another “But It’s Ok When We Do It” Moment. I concur, and I think you will too, after watching the following segment from Slate on how the Edwards campaign creatively edited a campaign video he recently sent to 70,000 Iowa voters:

As the Slate segment points out, there was an uproar from the usual suspects over a Bush 2004 campaign ad where his campaign did some creative editing, which the Guardian describes here:

George Bush’s campaign team has been forced to pull a television advert after admitting a picture of the president addressing the troops in Iraq had been digitally enhanced.

The election ad showed President Bush addressing the Republican National Convention before cutting to a photograph of a group of soldiers at a rally in New York.

But the liberal weblog, DailyKos, showed that the same faces appeared several times in several different places within the same crowd shot.

A spokesman for the Bush campaign said the original photograph had been altered because the president and his podium obscured part of the crowd of soldiers. The people who made the advert removed the image of Mr Bush, replacing him with duplicated images of soldiers.

Mr Bush’s Democratic rivals lost no time in trying to gain political capital from the gaffe. “Now we know why this ad is named ‘Whatever it Takes,’ ” John Kerry’s campaign adviser, Joe Lockhart, told the Los Angeles Times.

“This administration has always had a problem telling the truth, from Iraq to jobs to healthcare. If they won’t tell the truth in an ad, they won’t tell the truth about anything else.”

Ironically, it’s John Edwards who has that problem, but I doubt you’ll hear any of those same Democrats who slammed Bush over his ad even bother to acknowledge that – for that matter, I doubt any of them would even bother to comment on the golden boy’s smooth little editing job. “Whatever it takes” indeed.

BTW, as a side note, Edwards has caved to the Nutroots (this is not the first time, either) and weaseled out of a Dem candidate debate in Nevada because the debate – get this – is hosted in part by Fox News. Surrender, thy name is John Edwards.

Next up is the Washington state legislature, where a few Democratic lawmakers were recently caught with their noses high up in the air regarding the idea of bringing NASCAR to Washington (emphasis added):

FOX8 News
FOX8 WGHP — To no one’s surprise (in this newsroom anyway), NASCAR fans in the Piedmont don’t like being stereotyped as toothless, white trash rednecks.

The remarks were made after a group including Richard Petty and Darrell Waltrip went before Washington state lawmakers about wanting to build a race track in the Evergreen State.

Washington state representative Larry Seaquist made this comment about NASCAR fans with southern roots: “These people are not the kind of people you would want living next door to you. They’d be the ones with the junky cars in the front yard and would try to slip around the law.”
Local NASCAR fans we talked with agreed to disagree with the stereotype.

[…]

What does NASCAR team owner and wine expert Richard Childress think about all of this?

“Evidently he knows absolutely nothing about what he’s talking about” said Childress. “I was always brought up to say if you can’t say something good about someone, don’t say it, but I’m going to brake[sic] this rule. This guy is full of _____” (you can fill in the blank).

Another Washington state lawmaker made some nasty comments toward Richard Petty. Speaker of the House Frank Chopp implied the King of NASCAR looked like a drunken felon, saying “You mean the guy who got picked up for DUI?”

For the record, Mr. Petty does not drink alcohol. A spokesperson for Petty said Chopp later apologized and the team owner considers the issue over and done with.

Now, I want you to imagine for a moment that this was a debate over building a black history museum or a gay pride monument, and certain Republican lawmakers made similar comments to Seaquist’s. The outrage would be nuclear. We’d see ‘human/civil rights groups’ converge on the state the likes you’ve never seen before. Democratic lawmakers would ask for – and receive – apologies and denunciations from Republicans in the state.

But because they insulted the ‘redneck NASCAR’ crowd, we get a lame half-baked apology from one, and a denial from another the other, with the classic Democrat non-apology:

Rep. Larry Seaquist said he has no problem with NASCAR fans, despite having been quoted earlier as saying: “These people are not the kind of people you would want living next door to you. They’d be the ones with the junky cars in the front yard and would try to slip around the law.”

Seaquist, interviewed on the Sirius Satellite Radio show “The Morning Drive” on Monday, said he “never said a word against NASCAR fans” in his opposition to a proposed deal to build a 1.2-mile, 80,000-seat race track in his district near Bremerton, about 50 miles west of Seattle.

“I was going after the International Speedway Corporation,” the Democrat said. “That’s who I had in mind. It’s my own fault I wasn’t clear enough what I was saying and I apologize to anybody who did take offense. But my concerns are solely about the track corporation, and that’s because they’re trying to come out here, build a track, make a lot of money and leave the taxpayers in the dirt.”

LOL. “I said it before I didn’t say it.” Arrogance personified.

Denial is a river, Senator. :))

To contact Seaquist with your thoughts on what he thinks of NASCAR – southerners, really – here’s the info:

Email: seaquist.larry@leg.wa.gov
Phone: (360) 786-7802
Snail mail:

Rep. Larry Seaquist
P.O. Box 40600
317 John L. O’Brien Bldg.
Olympia, WA 98504-0600

(Hat tip for the Fox link: JonJayRay at Stop The ALCU)

Update I: I meant to post more about that debate in Nevada that Edwards slithered out of due to the ‘concerns’ of Fox News-hating moonbats. Read this (with empahsis added):

Dear Nevada Democrats:

As you know, the Nevada State Democratic Party has agreed to host a debate with FOX News that has caused some concern among some of our activist allies. Because FOX has such an editorial bias against Democrats, some of our allies believe that we should have chosen another media partner. Senator Reid shares some of these concerns and has asked us to take another look at the parameters of this debate in order to ensure that all Democrats are comfortable as we move forward.

Our objective in hosting the August debate with FOX has not been to endorse the FOX News Channel. Our objective with this debate is the same as our objective in hosting an early Nevada Caucus in general — to have as many opportunities for Nevada voters and voters throughout the West to hear directly from the candidates for president as possible. That is why our first forum was hosted with ABC News as the broadcaster, our November debate will be hosted by CNN and the final debate in January 2008 will be hosted with another outlet.

In planning the debate, the Nevada Democratic Party has been aware of the intricacies of dealing with FOX and so we secured assurances from them that the details of the debate were mutually agreed upon such as format, panelists, set design, and the assurance of an uninterrupted broadcast without commentary. FOX has also agreed to carry the debate live on KVVU, the affiliate in Las Vegas where most Nevada voters live. Other affiliates may follow. We believe that these details will assure that voters have the opportunity to focus on the candidates and the issues and not the panelists or commentators for an uninterrupted 90 minutes.

Since reaching that agreement with FOX we were heartened to hear from so many people who supported our decision to reach out to voters wherever they may be, including those watching FOX News. The state parties of Arizona, Montana, Colorado and New Mexico joined in support of our decision along with DNC Chairman Howard Dean, many members of the Nevada media and the leaders of the Nevada AFL-CIO, Culinary Union and Professional Firefighters Association. While one of our state party’s Executive Board members has been vocally opposed to the debate, several party leaders have expressed support, including:

* Chris Wicker, Washoe County Chair: http://dullardmush.blogspot.com/2007/02/washoe-dem-chair-responds-to-FOX-debate.html

* Tom Gallagher, 2004 candidate for Congress from NV-03 http://www.nvtoday.com/index.php?option=com_content=view=251=

However we decided to take a step back and make our best effort to address the concerns that have been raised including:

* Many Democrats will want to watch or listen to the debate without supporting the FOX News Channel.

* There was a desire to include a panelist from a more progressive outlet, such as Air America, to ensure balance at the questioners table. (ROTF! “Balance?” –ST)

* There was also a desire to bolster a progressive media outlet, such as Air America or Politics TV that could use the opportunity to grow its constituency.

In answer to these concerns, we have secured an agreement to invite KJFK radio, the local Air America affiliate, to air the event live and C-Span will be able to carry the debate twice in its entirety after the conclusion of FOX’s broadcast. Additionally, the Nevada Democratic Party has an agreement to invite a local progressive voice onto the debate panel.

We will also offer PolitcsTV.com the ability to carry the live FOX News web cast feed on its site for one-time viewing. If PoliticsTV agrees, this will give national viewers who do not wish to watch FOX the ability to watch the debate live while bolstering a progressive leaning organization.

The hypocrisy of these juvenile whiners is absolutely astounding! Can you imagine if such demand were made by Republicans during a Republican debate that was supposed to be aired on CNN? Demands like “Rush Limbaugh should be a panelist” and “we demand that you broadcast this on ‘right wing radio'”?

Memo to the left: Grow the hell up!

Update II: Speaking of John Edwards doing what he does best …. (hat tip: Lorie Byrd)

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