Neuhardt the next smear victim in the next episode of how low will your opponent go…
A quick lesson in politics for those of you who don’t know how the political game of shopping opposition research works. You do research on a candidate, in this case Sharen Neuhardt who’s running for Ohio 7th district Congressional District. You don’t find anything on her, you don’t find anything on her husband, you don’t find anything on her children, but you find that her family has taken in a young man who is a Rwandan refugee. You also find he’s had a few minor scrapes with the law and that his request for asylum is still working it’s way through the court system that similar to other stories we’ve heard, what happened with a guardian when he was younger had an impact on his legal status in this country.
So what do you do? Evidently if you are the campaign manager for Steve Austria you claim that the Neuhardt family is Harboring an illegal immigrant and you take this story around to media sources in Ohio until you find one that will cover it. The reality is this young man is not being “harbored” nor is he hiding from the court system, nor is the Neuhardt family helping him hide from the court system. They have been the ones fighting since 2002 through the proper legal processes of our court system for Ishema Umuhoza to be granted asylum so he can stay here in the US where he has been since he was separated from his family during one of the violent episodes in Rwanda history.
If he were truly some type of a dangerous criminal who was being illegally harbored? First of all Immigration officials would seize him, which we have seen happen to other people, and they would hold an immediate deportation hearing, not to mention the Neuhardts would be charged. The real issue here though does not have anything to do with Ishema Umuhoza, he is not the one running for office. The real issue is where do we draw the line in this never ending game of playing politics?
When is enough enough? When do we start demanding that candidates run on the issues, not whatever dirt they can try to dig up that is not even related to the candidate? When does the media start taking responsibility for reporting actual news rather than trying to sensationalize to create headlines? There’s a selectivity issue as well, because while Sharen Neuhardt has not faced any valid accusation of breaking the law, it appears that can’t be said no questions exist about Steve Austria’s campaign. His campaign website appears to have three members of the military that in reading Department of Defense Directive 1344.10 appears to be a violation; which according to another Ohio blogger has also appeared in campaign literature as well. I visited Austria’s website for myself to verify, and the picture is still there so I took a screen shot of it.
You also can’t help but wonder if Austria’s campaign manager thought the Austria campaign being caught omitting a citation which some do feel is the definition of plagiarism, was a “cheap shot” was this their way of trying to get back at Neuhardt? Wouldn’t trying to accuse someone of “harboring an illegal immigrant” when they knew the case was still in the courts be just a bit more than a “cheap shot?”
They say that desperate times call for desperate measures, it’s clear in politics what happens when your opponent becomes desperate…
updated: Eric wrote a post on Plunderbund this morning.
Politics is an ugly, ugly game. Add in the media, and it’s even worse.
All we can hope for is that citizens see through this rubbish.
September 24th, 2008 at 8:13 amSooooo, what was the “immigrant” charged with while under their wing? If I were wisked out of Rwanda into the safe havens and opportunity of the USA, I would be respecting the hell out of the laws of the land here if there was the chance I’d get my ass sent back to Rwanda…so what criminal behavior has the refugee imported with himself? Jaywalking? I ask this because liberals have a nasty habit of making excuses for criminal behavior and deflecting it off as “culture”. If the guy is illegal AND pulling off criminal shit…send his ass back.
September 24th, 2008 at 11:16 amIf this is all a big nothing for politics, it’ll come out before the sloth-like INS does a damned thing and everyone involved is vindicated.
Sepp, the article was linked, he’s got some traffic stuff and a public intoxication charge, his record is hell of a lot smaller than the majority of members on the Lucas County Republican Executive Committee.
So, he’s not pulling off “criminal shit” as in stealing, or anything violent or even drug related.
September 24th, 2008 at 11:36 amToo bad that if you can’t get dirt on the one you want it’s fair game to go after any family member.
September 24th, 2008 at 11:44 amTina I believe that is the precise reason many people don’t want to run for office. I have yet to meet a perfect person and I believe that there are many individuals in the area that would be excellent public servants, but don’t want their past examined under the microscope or their families to become public targets. Yes if they embezzeled funds we need to know about it. If they got a speeding ticket in 1987…so what.
September 24th, 2008 at 11:52 amNobody got very upset by the potential “first dude’s” driving drunk, endangering other people, but this guy’s offense was WALKING while drunk. How scary. Isn’t that what we tell our kids? If they get intoxicated, walk, don’t drive.
Sepp says that “liberals have a nasty habit of making excuses for criminal behavior”–but from Cindy McCain’s drug addiction, to Palin’s hubby’s DUI…. I’d say Republican’s are pretty good at making excuses.
September 24th, 2008 at 12:49 pmWell the democrats are no better. Can anyone say Marc Dann!!!!!!
Todd Palin’s drunk driving charge was well over 22 years ago. What does that matter?
This stuff is getting out of hand. We need to know what the candidate stands for. Like Tami said, we do need to know pertinent information as to their character and their background, but the family stuff should be off limits. Especially children.
September 24th, 2008 at 12:58 pmJude…both of your examples are candidates families and the one event is almost 20 years old from what I understand. This is what I was talking about in #5 above.
September 24th, 2008 at 1:02 pmI guess Neuhardt’s opponant has nothing to offer on the actual issues when he’s digging for crap like this to pan out to the media.
September 24th, 2008 at 1:32 pmJude can’t you come up with more than that?
September 24th, 2008 at 1:32 pmTami, I don’t normally write in caps but…AMEN!
September 24th, 2008 at 2:33 pmI think Jude was trying to make the point that hypocrisy exists as far as what is being presented out there. Both parties or their supporters have used family members to smear candidates.
It’s why no matter who you support, it’s time to say, ENOUGH!
September 24th, 2008 at 2:35 pmThe last time I heard a candidate lay out a point plan for their time in office was Carty Finkbeiner. I guess we should be careful what we wish for.
But wouldn’t it be nice if we could get some clear information about what the candidates plans actually are? I haven’t seen one ad in the President campaign that talks about anything of substance. Most of them ONLY talk about their opponent. Our political system is broken.
And long, long before the DNC and the RNC sweethearts emerge the media is in there running stories and influencing voters. It would be fine if they would just print the news, but we have reporters going to pick up stuff like a 22 year old DUI. That’s not reporting the news, that’s election fixing.
September 24th, 2008 at 7:44 pmMy point is the double standard here. Either we keep personal lives out of this, or if, as the Republicans have done, we claim to stand for higher moral standards, then you open you life up to examination. McCain goes on and on about his wonderful family, but omits the part in his convention video about having cheated on and then dumped the faithful wife who waited on him while he was a POW. Palin supports abstinence-only sex ed, and we see where that gets her poor daughter.
In any case, Austria’s smear campaign, victimizing the survivor of one of history’s bloodiest genocides (and I should add, his plagiarism in recent weeks) speak poorly of his character.
But yes, let’s talk about their platforms.
September 24th, 2008 at 8:40 pm