Wednesday, September 05, 2007

It Always Comes Back to the Nazis

A letter appeared in today's JG that left me baffled:

Suppose Kelty hid loan from unacceptable person

Once again, people are missing the point of what Matt Kelty did.

He lied about where the money he used in his campaign came from. I just wonder whether those people who are rushing to support him would be doing so if it had been a representative of the American Nazi Party who loaned him the money.

Does the JG editorial staff print these letters just to get a good laugh? Seriously, what is the point the author is trying to make here? Of course Kelty supporters wouldn't support him if the loan had come from the Nazi Party because his supporters don't support Nazis.

I need to start an archive of the dumbest letters written to the editor...

8 comments:

scott spaulding said...

It seems to work in print, too

Greg McClain, The Most Dangerous Blogger! said...

Wow - that one has to go as one of the dumpest.
Listen the money came from honest people that work for a living so that should not be the issue.
The issue here is did Matt fail to report this info the way the law says he should and then not being straight with the grand jury.
Personally, I don't really care, I think the mistake was just that a mistake and when Matt tried to figure out the complicated laws it was to late and that problem grew much bigger.
Keep in mind, that when this started he did not have the assistance and guidance of his party chairman, a lawyer who does understand the laws, as he was off running around supporting Matt's primary foe - Nelson Peters.
The court will decide his fate and I think he can and will get a fair shake.
It is a shame that the election will be tainted because of this as I think Tom Henry and Matt Kelty would both make good mayors.
Mistakes happen, its' just sad that Matt tried to handle this on his own and just made things worst.
I will never doubt his honesty, I am only questioning who was truely behind the REAL MOTIVATION behind this whole situation.

Eric White said...

I don't have any sources to cite at this point in time, but I seem to remember Matt saying that he had consulted an attorney to make sure that he had done everything correctly BEFORE the addendum.

sigmund5 said...

You have misread the letter. He is not suggesting his supporters are Nazis. He is raising a rhetorical question to make another point about Kelty's and his supporter's character and intent.

Why would Kelty not report this "loan" something to hide? Why not ask more questions of where the money came from? Ignorance of laws doesn't wash here. Any reasonably intelligent and honest person knows that campaign finance laws require that monies in that amount require disclosure.

While not the best rhetorical question it is a valid point. What if Henry had gotten a large private loan from Sean Penn, or a Jane Fonda or a gay and lesbian group or any other bogeyman of the right and didn't report it? Wouldn't Republicans be up in arms? Wouldn't they ask questions of who gave the money and why?

Unknown said...

Scott, I can't decide if that's a hilarious or pathetic phenomenon (or both), but it was certainly interesting.

sigmund5 said...

why is this a dumb letter?

Jeff Pruitt said...

Otto,

Of course he lied about where the money came from. But what do the nazis have to do with it? Why even bring that up? Of course his supporters wouldn't be rushing to his defense if he got a contribution from such a dispicable group. But the contribution wasn't from a dispacable group/person so the author's rhetorical question isn't really germane.

Bringing the nazis into the argument just turns people off...

sigmund5 said...

I guess it turns people off and a mistake because he assumed people would understand what he was saying. He was not calling them Nazis...it was a rhetorical question...he was making a completely other point.