I have egg on my face, and it ain’t cooked as I like it…

Okay, you got Andy Harris and I me on this commercial (thanks for the grammar lesson). Trust me, I’m not pleased about it because, despite the fact the sentiments are true, reusing the footage from earlier this year is a little misleading and doesn’t quite pass the smell test. In the Daily Times story by Greg Latshaw, Harris campaign manager Chris Meekins explains:

Chris Meekins, Harris’ campaign manager, confirmed that the people in the ad were the same, but declined to say if the footage was new or shot before the February primary.

“The core issue is that Frank Kratovil is a liberal,” he said. “That’s the message, that he and Gilchrest are two tax-and-spend liberals.”

Well, Meekins is correct in his message but much as I like Chris and he seems like a nice enough guy in the few times I’ve spoken to him, in this case I have to call this faux pas sheer laziness on the part of him and whoever else created the commercial. If you needed a few more seconds of fresh footage, you could have called me up. I’d have looked square into the camera and uttered the truthful words:

Frank Kratovil will go to Washington and be a lap dog for Nancy Pelosi.

It just pisses me off because there was no shortage of people who would have said essentially the same thing about Frank Kratovil that they would have said about Wayne Gilchrest. This leaves me in sort of a moral dilemma because I definitely don’t condone the tactic, but voting for the Libertarian would be throwing my vote away and I’m not going to vote for a Pelosi lapdog, nor will I stay home or skip the race. But this story (of course, the Daily Times is all over anything to make Kratovil look good, even on their supposed misquotes as the Latshaw piece later notes) might well be the difference in a close election and the last thing the First District needs is someone who would be in lockstep with Barack Obama if he’s elected.

Certainly the commercial needs to be pulled although the damage is done. While it’s arguable that a further statement regretting the error should also be put out, perhaps the better statement would be to contact the two whose original footage was reused and see if they agree with the sentiments about Kratovil, too. I’m actually surprised the Daily Times didn’t try to track these two down, then again the pair may have stood by their earlier statements in the belief that they relate correctly to Kratovil as well.

As I noted earlier, the Daily Times “misquoted” Frank Kratovil then turned around and blamed Andy Harris for using the misquote in a commercial. This is the spot in question:

Truthfully, the commercial would have worked better if it tied Kratovil to the people (among them are several contributors to Kratovil’s campaign) who helped create this mess: Nancy Peosi, Barney Frank, Harry Reid, Christopher Dodd, and Barack Obama. Say what you want about “Wall Street greed”, these were the people who “encouraged” (at times under threat of legal action) banks to make these unwise mortgages. And don’t forget ACORN’s part, such as this example. (I like the “non-traditional income” euphemism myself.)

Unfortunately, campaigns don’t always go as one would prefer they do. Given the current economic climate, the party that has the most to do with it may yet be rewarded on Election Day with enhanced majorities in both houses of Congress and their Presidential candidate being handed the keys to the White House. For the sake of my adopted district and despite my misgivings about this particular campaign tactic, I’m still pushing the screen next to Andy Harris’s name in order to fight the potential damage to our nation.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer. View all posts by Michael