Nate de la Piedra - right about Rex Simmons

A while back, Nate de la Piedra wrote a few words about fellow Democrat Rex Simmons, running to take Tim Hugo's seat in the Virginia house of Delegates.

From BroadSide Online, some quotes by de la Piedra:

“Rex was spreading lies,” and “Rex has been lying to voters the entire campaign.”
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“Morris was defeated by Rex Simmons in the most cowardly campaign I have seen since W (Karl Rove) won South Carolina in 2000 by telling voters that McCain had an illegitimate black daughter,” wrote de la Piedra.
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De la Piedra also stated, “Rex is not a good Democrat, and will lose the election against Tim Hugo. If you are a Democrat in or around the 40th, I strongly urge you to not contribute your time or money to Rex.

Tim Hugo thought his words were important for the voters of the district, and include a few of them in an ad. The liberal blogosphere went nuts, complaining, as Democrats often do, that truthfully quoting what they say is negative and unethical.

Now we can see first-hand what Nate was talking about. From the AP via the Potomac News, "Over the top? Ad duels in hot legislative races go for the kill":

But one race, between Republican Del. Timothy D. Hugo and Democratic challenger Rex Simmons, has gotten so mean it has surprised seasoned political analysts and, they say, risks alienating voters.

A new mailer done on Simmons' behalf by the Democratic Party of Virginia alleges that Hugo lobbied for a major defense contractor linked to "torture abuses at Abu Ghraib," the notorious prison in Iraq.

The slick, single-sheet mailer features a small photo of Hugo, the bleak and shadowy interior of a prison cell. A short and sharp block of text concludes by asking, "If Tim Hugo will work for people like this, do you really want him working for you?"

The article quotes several people who criticize the ad (oddly, the great Dr. Carter, who took such great interest in "fairness" a few weeks ago regarding Tim accurately quoting Nate, is nowhere to be found, despiter her protestations in this blog last week that she was only interested in fairness and was not being "partisan").

For example:

But linking Hugo to the torture of Iraqi citizens is a claim so explosive it could backfire on the Democrats, said Mark Rozell, a political science professor at George Mason University.

"These are not the images you expect to see in a Virginia state legislative campaign," said Rozell, who lives and works in Fairfax County, by far the fiercest battleground in this year's state House and Senate races.

A lot of the stuff that's coming out of the Democratic Party right now is almost over the top. They smell blood and they're trying to maximize the opportunity they think they have to switch one of the two houses of the Legislature," he said.

The Democratic Party of Virginia has been called out for several other false mailings, including ads from Paul Nichols (51st), Jeanette Rishell (50th), and Chris Brown (52nd). Chris even managed to get an official cease-and-desist letter from the Virginia Club for Growth.

The ends justifies the means, it seems, and apparently the Democratic Party of Virginia will stop at nothing, including lies, to get power.

My favorite quote though was from Larry Sabato:

Larry J. Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said the mailing was so far out, it almost resembled a parody of a political attack ad. "To try to tie a state delegate to torture in Iraq is somewhere between ludicrous and desperate," Sabato said.

So Nate said Simmons was cowardly, and Sabato says ludicrous or desparate.

Lest you think that Rex Simmons is alone in this, Tim Hugo wrote to the Governor of Virginia to ask him to put a stop to this type of false smear campaigning. Kaine's response?:

"Rex Simmons believes in Virginia's future. He was an underdog. But he's fought hard and clawed his way into a race that has great potential for Virginia Democrats,'' Kaine wrote. "He's proven himself 100%, and I'm proud to support his campaign."

Yes, he's proven himself 100%, if that's 100% contemptable. But Kaine has one goal, to get a majority in the state senate, and he isn't going to make the mistake of standing up for principles now.

For Democrats, principles are only for when you are running for office and need to pretend you are a centrist and "bipartisan". Now Kaine is 100% satisfied with Rex, who ran a cowardly primary campaign full of lies, and is now engaging in a general election campaign somewhere between "ludicrous and desparate".