BY KIRK JOHANNESEN
johannesen@therepublic.com
Columbus, IN
Republican congressional candidate Mike Sodrel said Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, DIll., represents the wrong kind of change. Sodrel explained his opposition to Obama and Congress’ financial bailout, and his support of drilling in Alaska while speaking at a Bartholomew County Republican Party chili dinner Wednesday.
Sodrel, who faces U.S. Rep. Baron Hill, D-Ind., for a fourth consecutive 9th District election, said he believes Americans face losing liberties gained in the Revolutionary War if Obama defeats Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
Electing Obama also would mean more government regulation and higher taxes, Sodrel said. ‘A tyrant’ “As your (county party) chairman pointed out, we’re in danger of electing a tyrant,” Sodrel said. “I don’t think he’s a communist; (Karl) Marx said you had to do it with bullets. I think he’s a socialist, and he wants to do it with ballots,” Sodrel said.
Sodrel’s comments drew vocal support from several Republicans. “I just want to point out he’s not a communist. He’s not a socialist. He’s a fascist,” said Superior Court 2 Judge Rod McGillivray, who is running against Democrat Kitty Coriden.
“I guess I shouldn’t be s u r p r i s e d by all this,” said Gary J. Bell, chair of the Bart h o l o m ew C o u n t y Democratic Party. He said he dislikes negative campaigning and people putting labels on their opponents. But the Hill-Sodrel race was nasty two years ago, Bell said, and he expects the same for this year.
With Indiana a swing state this year, and polls showing more people leaning Democratic, Bell said he thinks Sodrel has to “rev up the rhetoric in order for people to listen to him.” But, Bell said, “It’s not going to get people to vote for him … who are middle of the road.”
Bell also said that McGillivray is a “likable person” and that he has known him from North Christian Church, where both serve as deacons. However, Bell said it was a little beyond his comprehension that McGillivray would call Obama a “fascist.”
“He must think he’s losing his battle,” Bell said. Bartholomew County Republican Party Chairman Ted Ogle said Obama is taking away Americans’ freedoms. “What we’re saying is we’re afraid of the way he is leading the direction of this country to a different form of government,” Ogle said. “It’s not of the people, by the people or for the people. It’s for the government.”
Sodrel said the government did the wrong thing by supporting the bailout, and he also said Hill, who voted against the bill, opposed it for the wrong reasons. Hill voted against the bailout, Sodrel said, because of the tax breaks in the bill and because President Bush supported it. Sodrel said taxpayers don’t have $700 billion to cover the bailout.
“Tax cuts would not have cost as much and would have put money in people’s pockets,” Sodrel said. People would have more money in their pockets through lower gas prices if Congress approves drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Sodrel said. He recalled his trip to Alaska this year to talk to people about drilling in ANWR, and told the audience that most Alaskans support drilling. New drilling could be achieved within a few years and would reap at least 16 billion barrels of oil. “People say we can’t drill our way out of the problem and that’s correct, but we can’t get out of this problem without drilling,” Sodrel said. “We can do it in an environmentally friendly way.”
‘Fascist’ comment showed poor judgment
RECENT comments by Republican candidates Mike Sodrel and Judge Rod McGillivray have no place in the civil discourse of a representative democracy preparing for the most important election in years.
Instead, the low tactics they engaged in against Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., were fear-mongering and demagoguery.
Our electorate deserves better than that.
At Wednesday’s Republican chili supper at the fairgrounds, Sodrel called Obama a socialist, and McGillivray followed by calling Obama a fascist. Our reporter was there to hear it and report it.
We could have expected a tactic like this from Sodrel, who was engaged in a nasty mudslinging contest two years ago, when he lost his bid for a seat in Congress to Rep. Baron Hill, D-Ind. But it’s a surprise hearing that kind of mean-spirited rhetoric from a local sitting judge.
The most important characteristic we expect from a judge is sound judgment. Calling a U.S. senator and presidential candidate a fascist demonstrates a lack of that important trait.
Our point isn’t to take a stand for Obama, or against Sodrel and McGillivray as it relates to their elections but rather to take a stand for civility.
What we’re saying is that the American people have heard enough of this kind of empty, mean-spirited name-calling. Let us judge candidates by what they say and do, not by what inflammatory labels their political opponents put on them.
That standard holds for Obama and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. But it also goes for Sodrel and McGillivray. Readers can comment on today’s editorial by
sending comments by e-mail to editorial@therepublic. com
by fax to (812) 379-5711 or
by writing “Editorials,” The Republic, 333 Second St., Columbus, IN 47201.
Please take a look from a blog on The Hill's Congress Blog
http://blog.thehill.com/2008/09/16/mccain-secretly-plans-new-tax-on-middle-class/
Andy Card just said that Palin is a woman that's not a man. I would say that's a sexist remark. Now I don't know about you but this looks like another beauty contest and a typical game the republicans are famous for. Divide and conquer as they have done in the past.
Hang on people because its going to get rough and we have to remain focused. McCain is still 72 yrs old and he needs to fully disclose ALL of his medical records. I say he has been or is being treated for post traumatic stress. I don't want her speaking for me and that is now what the republicans are doing is bypassing McCain and letting her run the show. Its still early and not everybody has played their cards.
Good read
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1839416,00.html
Here is one to keep an eye on.
http://www.hawaiireporter.com/
Not this time McCain!
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2008/09/_meanwhile_back_at_the.html
If you have time, please try to read some of the comments.
He's a disgusting old man. I have been griping about his actions like this for a long time. Watch McCain's face as Daddy Yankee works the "young" high school girls. He needs to be exposed for his actions like this because this isn't the first time!
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/8/27/0050/93650/765/575892
This is how Obama's campaign needs to respond to McCain's ads. Run these as ads on tv up against McCain's and that will help get the word out to the people that actually believe the smear that McCain is spreading. Sometimes people don't get it until they see it written down and explained, plus most senior Americans don't have computers to fact check.
Although its going to get tough for McCain to spread the smears because he has limited use to his cell phone...ha!http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/8/9/2031/50843/957/565530
In Florida for an economic town hall, two black guys disrupted his talk holding a sign saying "what about the black community..Obama?" And then the crowd started chanting "yes we can"
Obama handled that situation with ease and said to the two guys "hold on, let's be civil about this and you will get your chance to have your say"
There was nobody dragging anybody out, there was no security surrounding them, but I think I saw two people sitting next to them that took the sign, which they shouldn't have because it was not their fight.
This is WHY I want Obama in charge. One thing about Obama is he's fair. He will let those two have their say in what their concerns are and maybe even meet with them.
If it had been McSame he probably would have let them been taken care of by security.
Obama knows how to meet with opposition head on and still be fair in the process. It was awesome and I hope there will be YouTube on it later!
WTHR Indianapolis (NBC) is not airing MEET THE PRESS with Barack Obama. Please contact this station and demand MEET THE PRESS, in its entirety, be aired at a reasonable time so the state of Indiana can view it.
At 10am WTHR is airing coverage of the Brickyard 400 which DOES NOT EVEN start until 2:30pm.
I'm from Indiana and I am a race fan but give me a break. The 400 does not even start for the next 4 hours and WTHR is completely ignoring the fact of an entire hour by MEET THE PRESS.
Please go to the below link and make your voice heard. We do not want part of the hour shown we want the ENTIRE hour!!!
http://www.wthr.com/Global/category.asp?C=28218
MUST READ!
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/26/opinion/26herbert.html?hp
