My View
If Bill Hudak's "My View" column of Wednesday, Feb. 3 was an example of the way he plans to run his campaign against incumbent U.S. Rep. John Tierney, his supporters must be mighty confused.
From all Hudak has said — and then unsaid; from the inflammatory signs and slogans he has flaunted and then disavowed; to the endorsements he claimed and then dismissed as "staff error;" to the litany of misstatements he has made about Tierney's record, it must be hard for them to maintain their enthusiasm.
He littered his Boxford lawn with insulting signs depicting President Obama in Arab garb with a scraggly beard and now dismisses it as "political satire."
Donning the "birther" mantle, he insinuated that Obama was not a U.S. citizen and was therefore ineligible to be president. He now reverses himself and says Obama "has every right to be president (and) as such, he deserves our full respect."
That's not how anyone would read the "NOBAMA" license plate on his SUV, covered with outrageous anti-Obama slogans.
He also tried to claim Sen. Scott Brown's endorsement even though Brown never offered one, and made a point of distancing himself from Hudak's claim. In a stunning display of disloyalty to his own staff, Hudak tried to insinuate it was their fault.
Now Mr. Hudak tries to whitewash the entire sorry display with a contrite "mea culpa" in this paper. He must think readers and voters have very short memories.
Mr. Hudak may disagree with Congressman Tierney's views; that is his right. But he has no right to misstate those views or to misinterpret facts about the congressman and his record.
Tierney is no political hack, as Mr. Hudak would like others to believe. He's the product of a working-class family in Salem who attended public elementary and high schools, Salem State College, and then worked his way through Suffolk Law School.
Since he was elected to Congress, Tierney has been known as one who fights for us on every front — security, education, jobs, retirement security and health care. We see him all the time as he moves around the district.
Tierney has voted numerous times for a fair distribution of tax cuts, most recently when he voted for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a third of which went to give a tax cut to 95 percent of Americans. The $195 million in stimulus funds for 6th District projects has provided badly-needed help to its cities and towns, for schools, water and sewer improvements, public safety and health services.
He is a champion of small business and a national leader in the area of education and job training. He is author of the Green Jobs bill. His work has ensured that we have teachers for our classrooms and public safety personnel in our fire and police stations even in these tough economic times.
And with growing influence on national security issues, Tierney has been chosen by his peers to serve us on the Select Committee on Intelligence and as chairman of the Oversight Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs.
Wouldn't we rather have as our representative a man who fights for all of us and is respected and successful in his legislative work than someone whose public image to date is that of an insincere waffler and backpedaler who disavows the inflammatory statements he displays on his property, blames others for "endorsements" he never received, and grossly misrepresents the positions and record of our congressman?
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Tom Halsted lives in Gloucester and has written previously for the Opinion pages.
