Thursday, September 21, 2006

Leonard Boswell lost my vote today.

If you haven't seen Leonard Boswell's new ad yet, go see it here. Grab one of those vomit bags they give you on airplanes before you do so.

Let me make one thing clear: I'm no fan of Jeff Lamberti. I think he's slimy, disingenuous and doesn't have Iowans' best interest at heart. But after watching that ad, I'm not going to vote for Leonard Boswell anymore.

I consider myself a progressive. I'm strongly in favor of immigration reform, criminal justice reform and I think "the fence" is xenophobic at best. The first half of the ad tells me that Leonard Boswell isn't with me on any of those issues.

I'm also firmly against negative advertising, record slanting and character attacks. The second half of the ad goes three-for-three on those points.

From the ad:

"He (Lamberti) voted to reduce sentences for rapists, drug dealers and murderers."


The ad quotes Senate File 2275 from the 2003-2004 session. I looked it up. Here's the amendment to the code made in the bill:

A person serving a sentence for conviction of the following felonies, including a person serving a sentence for conviction of the following felonies prior to July 1, 2003, shall be denied parole or work release unless the person has served at least seven-tenths of the maximum term of the person's sentence:


Does that look like sentence reduction to you?

UPDATE: As it turns out, it was a reduction. Click here for details.

While I was on lunch today, the song "The Hit" by Smile Empty Soul came on. The refrain to the song says:

Hey record company, do you need a hand?
Cause I need a hand too,
To keep me from hitting you.


That's about how I feel.

So after this ad showed me that Leonard Boswell isn't with me on progressive issues and isn't above using character distortion to get my vote, I decided where I stand.

Iowa probably won't be better off with Jeff Lamberti in Congress, but things may not get worse, either.

As of right now, I'm planning on leaving that race blank.

KL

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Somewhere in Iowa, Nicolai is smiling.

Welcome to the club.

Anonymous said...

So, under your logic here, Iowans are better off with Lamberti serving us going forward. I am no big fan of Boswell, but Lamberti will a disaster for Iowa and the country and just one more enabler of the sickness that currently passes for our national government right now. Political madman indeed!

Anonymous said...

When I lived in Polk County, I voted for Boswell, and would consider doing it again, but you are right - this is not the kind of ad that does well for Boswell in my view.

Anonymous said...

I don't watch TV, but I'm willing to forgive Boswell a sleazy ad if Lamberti is doing the same, but I watched the ads on all sides and Boswell's is really repulsive. Why not attack Lamberti for the consequences of his tax cuts?

I'm not voting for Boswell because he voted for the Military Commissions Act in the House yesterday, one of the 34 Dems who abandoned the party to do so. Damn, I wish Leach was still my Congressman (he was one of the 7 Reps who voted with the Dems).