The right is emptying the sewers in attacking Judge Diane Marie Hathaway, but the good news is that it means she has a good chance of winning the seat over an incumbent on the Michigan Supreme Court.
The Michigan Chamber of Commerce took a shot at Hathaway with a vile ad of their own in order to prop up their stooge on the court, Cliff Taylor, the leader of the three other extreme rightwing activist judges known as the "Gang of Four." The ads are false, attacking her sentencing record as a Wayne County Circuit Court Judge.
The latest pair of false attack ads are being paid for by the Michigan Republican Party. I'm happy to see they are spending money on this trash they didn't expect they would have to spend and will not be able to spend elsewhere. We can only hope voters are smarter than the GOP give them credit for, and they will see through the lies. I think they are or the race would not be this close.
The vilest ad features a sinister mug shot of Dearborn resident Hussein Ali Zorkot in a Willie Horton-like ad. The third-year Wayne State University medical student was arrested on Sept. 8, 2007 in Dearborn's Hemlock Park with a loaded AK-47. He was sentenced in a plea deal on July 29 to two year's probation.
The Republicans are, of course, using their tried and true tactics of fear and racism, and trying to label him as a terrorist. He has not been identified as a terrorist or linked to any terrorist group, according to law enforcement officials. It was a plea deal, and if Hathaway went against the deal the prosecutor made there would be a trial.
The next ad is built around one single quote that appears to be taken out of context. This is the quote: "most of the Winter on the Sunny Beaches of Florida." That's it. It has to be taken out of context because it's not a complete sentence. It references the Oct. 25, 2006 issue of the Michigan Chronicle. The ad features beach scenes, and uses the incomplete quote as the reason Hathaway ran for Michigan Appeals Court Judge in 2006.
1 comment:
The problem is, you don't mount a defense against the ad...you just say it's unfair.
If the plea deal was accepted, that means the judge thought it was okay. Did that mean she was all right with probation for a guy with a loaded AK-47? That sounds like a pretty serious offense. I don't think loaded AK-47s are needed for squirrel hunting, for instance. I concede that I know nothing about the case. But that doesn't mean the attack ad is wrong. You do nothing to counter it.
A plea would require a trial? Mercy me. What a horrible thing to expect a judge to endure.
I know that pleas are part of the process and without them the system would clog up. But the question...unanswered by you ... is whether this plea was in the public's interest. Without that information, we can't really judge the unfairness of the ad.
It's funny...you accept the sleeping Cliff Taylor ad without question, but you don't question at all a seemingly light sentence for a guy with an assault weapon.
Is there any topic that you can decide on its face...or does everything depend on whether it's a Democrat or a Republican?
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