Sam Bennett's Clean Campaign? - Push Polls & Name Calling

Not too long ago, I linked to pro-labor Democratic Talk Radio Blog. Stephen Crockett, who does the talk radio show, sometimes addresses LV issues. He even has an archive of audio interviews with people like Sam Bennett (4/10), Michael D'Amore (4/24) and Jennifer Mann (4/17).

I listened to the Sam Bennett interview. Asked about the Iraq war, she started things off by calling Congressman Charlie Dent a "double dipping" "career politician" who is "hand in glove with robber baron Republicanism."

Alrighty, then.

After these slams, Bennett demanded in July that Dent take a "clean campaign pledge," promising to refrain from negative personal attacks and making sure that his staff and anyone associated with his campaign do the same thing.

Excuse me? Is she serious?

Just last Thursday, Stevie Crockett and Sam Bennett were conducting a mock debate on local radio with "Chicken Charlie the Dented." No negative personal attack there.

Now, Sam "Clean Campaign" Bennett is also conducting push polls. I guess that's clean, too. The push poll contained no "paid for by Sam Bennett for Congress" disclaimer. Here's a report from Shawn Millan, Charlie Dent's campaign manager.

The questions:

They asked if we preferred a woman who had lived in Saigon and understood the military and has family in service or the man who votes 100% of the time with Bush.

Demonstrably false. Charlie’s record since entering Congress shows that he has supported the Bush Administration’s stated position on legislation only 60 percent of the time. In the interests of a clean campaign, however, I promise not to refer to Ms. Bennett as “Saigon Sam” or “Miss Saigon.” Seriously, that questioned pegged the Dopey-Meter and that’s saying something for the Bennett campaign.

Do I prefer the woman who will bring the troops home from the unjust war or Dent who does not care about the troops?

Really sick. I mean just beneath any kind of candidate with even a hint of integrity.

Do we prefer the hard-working local woman who has been a single Mom and knows what problems face us or the Man who takes money from Big Oil?

Bennett just wrote an op-ed that said her own family was in the heating oil business. Maybe they didn’t buy their oil from Big Oil. Maybe they got their oil through Mom and Pop Oil.

Do we prefer Sam Bennett who has created programs for the improvement of neighborhoods or Charlie Dent who is on the take from special interests?

Again, this is another false personal attack. Frankly, most of the programs that Bennett’s “created” are for her enrichment or aggrandizement.

Do we prefer Sam who has worked hard to bring jobs to Allentown or Dent who only works for George Bush’s corporate cronies?

Well, she brought at least one six figure job to Allentown – her own do-nothing position with Properties of Merit.

Do we prefer a tough fighter like Sam Bennett or Charlie Dent who opposes environmental issues and alternative fuels?

Just complete malarkey. First off, Charlie has always said that we a balanced approach to energy including drilling. And, the “opposes alternative fuels part” is ridiculous. Hello, there’s a call for Sam Bennett on the Reality Phone, Charlie’s the co-founder of the House’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Caucus.

It’s understandable though, facts have no place in a push poll.

This is a quote from the story that Darryl [Isherwood] wrote on the clean campaign pledge back on July 10th:

"Bennett said the calls were a 'dirty campaign trick straight from Karl Rove's playbook...' and demanded an apology on behalf of all voters who received the call.

As part of the pledge, both candidates would promise not to spend resources on personal attacks and call on staffers and outside groups to avoid 'smear campaigns' as well."

Sometimes life is so good.

I guess we could go all super-cliché like a Bennett press release and accuse Sam of telling Big Lies and being full of Big Hot Air with her phony campaign pledge. We could probably throw something in there about Howard Dean or the Pelosi Washington DC Lie Factory, but I keep on reading Bennett’s press releases and they all sound like what I imagine Pravda must have sounded like before Glasnost. You know what I mean: “President Brezhnez says Big Capitalism to blame for lack of washing machines, refrigerators and apartments with four walls this year.” Or, “Local party youth group denounces Big Western Rock Music and Big Un-Soviet Blue Jeans.”

I just feel better knowing that you folks are aware of it. So the next time the Bennett Collective sends you a Pravda release on the clean campaign pledge, you’ll have some background.

Check out Pam Varkony's blog for Sam's Musikfest attack.

Musikfest?