Washblog

... I note that the Republican National Committee is spearheading an advertising campaign of such epic dishonesty that its chairman, Ken Mehlman, has for now secured the title "Chief Sinverguenza of the GOP" despite the current ferocious competition for that honor.

The Spanish-language radio spots, which are slated to begin running in markets with large Hispanic populations this week, criticize Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada for "playing politics" with immigration reform (last week, a proposed Senate immigration bill died when Republican Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee refused to allow Reid to bring forward various amendments to the measure).

This in itself wouldn't be newsworthy; but what pushes the ads from the world of ordinary political mudslinging into the realm of Orwellian doublethink is their claim that "Reid's Democrat allies voted to treat millions of hardworking immigrants as felons, while Republican leaders work for legislation that will protect our borders and honor our immigrants."

This claim, it should be unnecessary to point out, is a precise inversion of the truth. At the urging of President Bush's Department of Justice, the House Republican leadership introduced a bill that would transform undocumented immigrants into felons. Currently, being in the United States without proper documentation isn't a crime. People who are here illegally can, of course, be deported, but their undocumented status doesn't make them criminals.

The House bill aims to change that, and it passed on a largely party-line vote, with Republican members voting "yes," and Democrats voting "no." So how did Mehlman and his RNC propaganda machine transform this history into the claim that, unlike Republicans, "Democrats voted to treat millions of hardworking immigrants as felons?"

Here's how: There was a proposed amendment to the bill would have reduced the penalty for being in the country illegally to a misdemeanor. Democrats voted against this, too. According to the RNC, this vote means the Democrats were in favor of retaining the felony provisions.

That GOP argument fails what lawyers call "the red face test" _ in other words, it's an argument a lawyer couldn't make without blushing (which, when you consider the sorts of arguments lawyers make every day, is saying something).

Now let us remember and not forget that when the McGavicks and Reicherts and Mcmorrises ... et al make public speeches pretending to full civic honesty with Washington voters, they belong to a party that deliberately and publicly turns truth on its head to curry votes from the rest of us - people they consider quite dumb.

They belong to and are funded by a party that ships in a Prez or VP to pretend that they've looked in to a particular Republican candidate's heart and found him/her worthy and deserving of your cash donations and political support - all at   taxpayer expense and call it a good, honest and justifiable waste of taxpayer resources.

But I must share a secret with you. Pac County has a hispanic population that is of significant size tho by no means on a level with agriculture counties in Eastern Washington or Skagit County.

These residents are part of what drives the local economy - paying taxes, buying homes and exercising purchasing power.

This busy population of working families continues to amaze me with how perceptive they are about more than just economic realities. They continue to amaze me with their spontaneous comments proferred without solicitation that "Bush is bad for the Mexicans."

I'm not so dumb as to assume that such an attitude constitutes an absolute unanimity of opinion. I'm also not so dumb as to assume I can take a truth, restate that truth by moving subjects, predicates and direct objects around and get away with it. Oh, and pretending that such an action presents to the nation a socially redeeming service.

From the national level to the state level the deception disease permeates Republican thinking. What Mehlman and company are pulling on Hispanic voters nationwide, the state Republicans are pulling in the same manner, to wit fake sex offender notices and poorly executed swift-bloat attacks on the governor, Senator Cantwell and other Democratic candidates.

That's why this current political crop is essentially useless and not to be trusted. It's infected and corrupted thru and thru. We'll have to wait for a whole new generation of publicly honest republicans to sprout.