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.