Political lessons from the McCloskey/Pombo campaign

Conventional political "wisdom" says Pombo has raised so much money from corrupt dealings with lobbyists wishing to extinguish every trace of environmental law and regulation on the books that he is unbeatable. But where does that money go?

Into a media flood of lies to try to save Pombo and all he can deliver to the lobbyists. Evidently, this crap is beginning to backfire on the great Buffalo Slayer.

It challenges conventional political "wisdom." If all Pombo can do with the money is produce deceptive advertising and the constituents are not in the mood to be deceived, what a truly incredible waste of money! If Americans ever regained their ear for the truth in politics, campaigns could not cost nearly what these inflated races cost now. If corporations were made by such a public that their political contributions were an incredible waste of money, the political system as we know it could collapse like Enron stock, and conventional political "wisdom" along with it.

Bill Hatch

KCRA 3
Adwatch: Pombo's ad focuses on gnatcher
http://www.kcra.com/politics/9241873/detail.html#
The ad claims Pombo saved lives of U.S. Marines by taking a stand on the gnatcatcher. KCRA 3 took a closer look. The ad was shown to three local experts...Barbara O'Connor is a public communications professor at Sacramento State University. Steve Swatt is a political analyst and former political reporter. Bob Waste teaches public policy at Sacramento State University. KCRA 3's adwatchers have a problem with how this describes that move as "closing" parts of the base. In 2003, Pombo wrote legislation exempting all military bases from critical habitat designations. But according to documents, three year's before Pombo's legislation the Fish and Wildlife Service already decided to exclude Camp Pendleton from this critical habitat decision...the scene in the ad of Camp Pendleton Marines being told they couldn't train because of the gnatcatcher could never have happened.

The following statement from Pete McCloskey on Pombo's latest misleading ad was sent to print reporters moments ago.
If you haven't already checked out the latest Pombo TV ad, and KCRA's analysis, go to:
http://www.kcra.com/politics/9241873/detail.html#
An analysis of the ad from KCRA is written below, following the McCloskey statement.
Pete McCloskey issued this statement regarding the ad:
"I trained at Camp Pendleton before leaving for Korea in 1951 and trained there nearly every year through 1965 when I volunteered for service in Viet Nam. The Marines have done a better job of preserving the native habitat and endangered species of most of the 400 square miles of Camp Pendleton than have many civilian agencies such as the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. Pombo has stretched the truth on the gnatcather, as he did when he lied to the Senate in 1994 about the kit fox. No Marine has lost has life or had it endangered because of the manner in which the base commanders at Camp Pendleton and Miramar have mainitained the natural landscape entrusted to them. Major General Mike Lehnert, who participated in the original assault on Baghdad, has perhaps said it best when he told me last February, when I visited the base, "A country worth fighting for is worth preserving."
"Pombo's deciding vote on May 26, 2005 against $9 million for prosthetic research to help military amputees is far more dangerous to Marines than the remaining wildlife at Camp Pendleton."
As a rifle platoon leader in Korea, McCloskey was awarded the Navy Cross, Silver Star and two Purple Hearts.