quote:Originally posted by Jugflier:quote:Originally posted by gbrk:
I for one, if I lived in Colbert County would vote for her just because of the post on this column. I doubt very seriously the accusation and think it's horrible that people are allowed to make such undocumented, unsubstantiated, accusations.
There is no doubt that they are just trying to smear this person and it's things like that that make me want to vote for the person, not against them for I doubt very seriously the validity of the statements from someone who obviously just opened an account for one reason.
False accusations.
Do you agree with me that she needs to come in here and condemn the shoalanda speaks/truitt crowd for employing the same tactics used against her?
Candidates for office are not obliged to respond to every charge leveled against them by every sniping scoundrel spreading lies. A wise and famous man of the 19th century, when asked why he declined to publicly debate one of his lightweight babbling critics, responded, "I need not raise my bow at every pygmy who shakes a bush."
Candidates have to choose where and when to speak out or not to speak out against their critics. Whoever is the object of criticism by Shoalanda should defend him/her self and not rely on Ms. Parker to set the record straight. In Alabama, candidates have enough fires to put out in dealing with accusations--true or false--against themselves.
It seems rather demanding to insist that a candidate is somehow obliged to rise up to condemn charges against another candidate--particularly when the truth or falsity of such charges is yet to be determined. Better the accused candidate should come forward, as Ms. Parker has done above,and directly and personally respond to the acusations.
In Alabama, it seems, the kinds of accusations we are now seeing often surface very near the end of political campaigns. The probable reason for that is because the timing of such accusations leaves little or no time for a falsely-accused candidate to publicly set the record straight. For this reason, I am automatically suspicious of such 11th-hour accusations and encourage others to be similarly suspicious.
Not all, but a pretty significant fraction of politicians fit within the description given several years ago by James Carville:
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