Local Government TV

Monday, September 15, 2008

Bennett Ads Analyzed by Dent Campaign

If you want to strike fear into the heart of a local Democratic operative, walk up behind him and whisper these two words - "Shawn Millan." You're bound to get a kick out of watching how fast a local committeeman can run.

Shawn Millan, who's actually a very nice guy for an evil Republican, is managing Charlie Dent's campaign for reelection as your LV Congressman. He has a very interesting and well-written analysis of Siobhan Bennett's attack ads (posted here and here).

POINT: “Bennett didn’t take a salary for 7 years.”

INTERESTING: Most people who are volunteers don’t take salaries. In fact, not taking a salary is a crucial element to volunteering. People volunteer because they believe in giving their time to a cause. I guess we taxpayers should have realized that we ran up quite a tab for all that Siobhan did for us.

NOTE: Why is Siobhan trying to chat with people who are obviously hard at work building something? The last time I checked, Properties of Merit didn’t build houses for people. Volunteer workers at the Habitat for Humanity do that. Habitat’s director gets paid $56,000 a year. Siobhan must do twice as much for our community as he does, based on her $110,000 a year salary.

LVRamblings: I don't know why Bennett would run an ad drawing public attention to her role at POM and her excessive salary there. Here's how she justified it a few months ago. "The political reporter of The Morning Call writes an investigative piece based on lies, half-truths and innuendo. But I had to be perceived as being responsive."

POINT: “This race is all about getting the greedy corporations out of our gas tanks, out of our grocery stores (emphasis added), and out of health care."

COUNTERPOINT: People who have been following this race know that Siobhan hates Big Oil. They know she doesn’t like Big Gas. Now the Axis of Evil is complete. Beware of Big Grocery. If you’re asking if you really heard a Congressional candidate say that they want to get greedy corporations out of our grocery stores, sit down, because, yes you did. We eagerly await the Bennett plan to nationalize the grocery delivery system in the United States.

POINT: “To send them a message. It’s time for change – now.”

COUNTERPOINT: Beware greedy grocers, I suppose.

I suppose this is the commercial that Siobhan thinks will inoculate her against charges that she really took a lot of money from a charity.

POINT: “I like gas at $4 a gallon!” --

COUNTERPOINT: Charlie has an energy plan. Bennett is the one who is adamantly opposed to increasing American energy production from traditional sources. She’s a “drill-nothing” candidate who also opposes coal and nuclear energy. Heck, based on Bennett’s energy plan, she wants gas to cost more than $4 a gallon.

POINT: “More war with no exit strategy!”

COUNTERPOINT: Charlie worked with Democrats and Republicans to try and pass legislation that would have enacted the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group into law. It’s true that Charlie has never voted to cut funding for our troops. Bennett, on the other hand, has repeatedly stated that she would vote against bills that provided funding for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

INTERESTING: Senator Obama voted for 4 out of 5 of the Administration’s funding requests. I guess Sam thinks he’s just another 80% rubbertstamp.

POINT: “Children’s healthcare.”

COUNTERPOINT: Charlie voted for the SCHIP bill and twice voted to override President Bush’s veto. Charlie actually met with Democrat Majority Leader Steny Hoyer to discuss how the bill could be presented to draw more bipartisan support.

POINT: “Food is expensive.”

COUNTERPOINT: Just another one of those wild “mud” pitches – like Musikfest and Mack Trucks – that Bennett likes to throw. At least, so far, she hasn’t tried to link Charlie to the Lindbergh Kidnapping.

POINT: “Cut Veterans' Benefits.”

COUNTERPOINT: Charlie has not voted to cut veterans' benefits. (Documentation attached.) In fact, Charlie just voted to vastly expand Veterans’ education benefits through the GI Bill. It was attached to legislation funding our troops – which, again, Bennett opposed.

INTERESTING: 16 whole seconds into her commercial before Bennett ran out of real people supporting her campaign and put Northampton County Democrat Committee Chairman Joe Long, into her commercial.

LVRamblings: Actually, Shawn, none of those are "real" people. They are all Democratic committeemen.

POINT: “Good guy Congressman. Bad Votes.”

COUNTERPOINT: Yes. Charlie is a good guy. Bad votes? Hardly.

INTERESTING: Hey, they stole one of our signs! Unless they paid to have them produced like the Dent T-shirts. Also, is that Rick Daugherty, Lehigh County Democrat Party Chair and sometime director of the Lehigh County Senior Center, a non-profit, supposedly non-partisan organization? Yep.

POINT: “It’s Sam or the Same.”

COUNTERPOINT: No, Sam is the same. Same old conglomeration of far left talking points, distortions and untruths.

NOTE: There’s a complete lack of documentation in the ad to support her assertions. Perhaps, she would be willing to provide those to you.

13 comments:

  1. If you go to mypom.org and check out the Allentown chapter's calendar, you will see that no events have been scheduled since October 2007, at all. The other locations for POM have similarly uneventful calendars (if they have calendars at all), even the newest chapters. Last year, awards functions were held in Oct. and Nov., but for 2008, nothing is listed, and when one visits the awards pages, chapters simply have posted "We will announce information about the 2008 Awards Reception right here when arrangements have been finalized." The Easton chapter does have a downloadable invitation to it's Awards Reception, but it's for the 2007 event, not for this year.

    According to it's own activities guideline/schedule this should be a fairly busy time of year for POM chapters.

    Does anyone have any information regarding how active this charity has been since the fall of 2007? Is this just a case of not maintaining the Web site properly, or is the organization cutting back it's community activities?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Pete,

    Since POM consists primarily of Sam Bennett, who took a leave of absence in August, I don't think the web page will be updated anytime soon.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Speaking of yard signs, south 16th Street, south of Hamilton, has been hit twice in the last week where Dent signs have been stolen. We have replaced most of them and now our cameras are waiting.
    One other thing. Bennett lives in our neighborhood and has not spent one minute in the neighborhood, walking the street, saying hello to the residents. Interesting
    Bob Romancheck

    ReplyDelete
  4. She took leave a month ago, but the site hasn't had an event posted in almost a year. Maybe that's understandable for the Allentown chapter, where she lives and is a chairperson, but what about the rest of the Valley, and state?

    Why is she touting POM when it appears to be somewhat dormant, at least on virtual paper?

    Again, if anyone has information on current POM events that have transpired in recent months or of a schedule awards event (Awards for well-maintained properties are the cornerstone of the program, aren't they?) please comment. The Web site could give the wrong impression about the charity being inactive.

    ReplyDelete
  5. http://www.votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=9121.
    Check out how Charles W. really voted!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anon 10:49am, did you review your information vs. what has been reported / are there differences to which you want to call attention?

    The Banker

    ReplyDelete
  7. http://www.votesmart.org/issue_keyvote_detail.php?cs_id=21189&can_id=9121.
    Charles W. votes against veterans again.
    -Increases housing benefits for specially adapted houses for disabled veterans from $10,000 to $12,000, with increases each year tied to the residential home cost-of-construction index (Sec. 2605).

    ReplyDelete
  8. Charles W. voted against veterans on this issue also.
    -Changes the limitation on the sale, foreclosure, or seizure of property owned by service members from 90 days to nine months after their return from military service, and limits their interest rates to 6 percent during service and one year after their return (Sec. 2203).

    ReplyDelete
  9. Charles W. voted against Women on this one.
    Equal Pay Bill



    Key Votes:
    HR 2831: Equal Pay Bill

    Issues: Civil Liberties and Civil Rights, Employment and Affirmative Action, Women's Issues
    Date: 07/31/2007
    Sponsor: Rep. Miller, George (D-CA)



    Roll no. 768

    Bill Passed
    (House)
    How members voted
    (225 - 199)



    Representative Dent voted NO


    Project Vote Smart's Synopsis:

    Vote to pass a bill that would designate that unequal payment based on race, religion, sex, national origin, age or disability is a new violation with each payment.


    Official Title of Legislation:

    HR 2831: To amend title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to clarify that a discriminatory compensation decision or other practice that is unlawful under such Acts occurs each time compensation is paid pursuant to the discriminatory compensation decision or other practice, and for other purposes.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hey troll, Dent voted yes on Final Passage of the Equal Pay Bill.

    You must thinking of the Letting Sam Bennett get Paid for Handing out Rakes bill.

    He voted against that one.

    He did vote for:

    HR 1338, the Paycheck Fairness Act when it passed the House by a vote of 247 to 178 (Roll # 556) on 31 July 2008. T

    he Paycheck Fairness Act would do the following:

    Requires that employers seeking to justify unequal pay bear the burden of proving that its actions are job-related and consistent with a business necessity.

    Prohibits employers from retaliating against employees who share salary information with their co-workers.

    Puts gender-based discrimination sanctions on equal footing with other forms of wage discrimination – such as race, disability or age – by allowing women to sue for compensatory and punitive damages.

    Requires the Department of Labor to enhance outreach and training efforts to work with employers in order to eliminate pay disparities.
    Requires the Department of Labor to continue to collect and disseminate wage information based on gender.

    Creates a new grant program to help strengthen the negotiation skills of girls and women.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Wow. Sight some features of massive bills dealing with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and twist them into a vote against veterans.

    Personally, I'd rather trust a guy like Dent than someone who steals from a charity.

    But that's just me.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anon 10:49, 10:55,

    Your links are incomplete and cannot be used. Please give either the full link or the bill title so that we can see what you are talking about.

    According to VoteSmart.org (the source you tried to cite), Rep. Dent only voted against one "Veteran's Bill", which you can see here. And that bill was a budget resolution in which one of 7 different department sections pertained to veterans. The bill also budgets for defense, health issues, military issues, senior and Social Security issues and poverty.

    Rarely is a bill a single-issue vote, as your comments suggest.

    Additionally, voters can go to VoteSmart.org's page here to read Rep. Dent's own words on this bill which is the best way to see why he voted the way he did on H CON RES 312 with H Amdt.972, which I presume is the bill you were trying to reference.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Don't worry lefties. Despite the fact that Dent is backstroking to re-election, make no mistake. You've already won the war as dent's supporters fall over themselves to tell how much out of control spending he approved. From a standpoint of fiscal responsibility, I'm depressed. Dent wins. The left wins. It's why Bernie loves him.

    ReplyDelete

You own views are appreciated, especially if they differ from mine. But remember, commenting is a privilege, not a right. I will delete personal attacks or off-topic remarks at my discretion. Comments that play into the tribalism that has consumed this nation will be declined. So will comments alleging voter fraud unless backed up by concrete evidence. If you attack someone personally, I expect you to identify yourself. I will delete criticisms of my comment policy, vulgarities, cut-and-paste jobs from other sources and any suggestion of violence towards anyone. I will also delete sweeping generalizations about mainstream parties or ideologies, i.e. identity politics. My decisions on these matters are made on a case by case basis, and may be affected by my mood that day, my access to the blog at the time the comment was made or other information that isn’t readily apparent.