Hit and Run, Below-the-Belt Politics

On January 19th, I moderated a Town Hall Meeting in Kalamazoo, Michigan on the Health Care bill working its way through Congress. One of the guest speakers was Congressman Pete Hoekstra. After his initial presentation, he took some questions. One of the questions he was asked was whether he regretted his decision to vote for the bailout. His complete answer, paraphrased, was that he could defend it based on what he knew at the time and how essential he felt it was, but that looking back from where we are today and how the money was misused, he regrets it.

It looks like someone from the Rick Snyder campaign, playing gotcha politics, recorded the entire forum and took about 8 seconds of Pete Hoekstra's answer where he said, "...I can defend it..." and put it out on You Tube as a hit piece. The attempt is to make it look like like Pete unapologetically defends his decision. Apparently the Snyder campaign does not observe Ronald Reagan's Eleventh Commandment: "Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow republican." But, then, Mr. Snyder has a very highly paid consulting firm that has the money and the scruples (or lack thereof) to to spend on such low-ball tactics.

Too bad.