I want to make sure something didn't get overlooked in the nonpartisan FactCheck.org's smackdown of Spike Maynard's deceptive ad.
But then the West Virginia Watchdog says without attribution that the Arab American group "has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood: the parent of both Hamas and Al-Qaeda, and a group affiliated with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)." There is no evidence of such "ties."
The Justice Department lists Hamas and al Qaeda, of course, as terrorist organizations. It also says that Hamas was "an outgrowth of the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood." But what is the Arab American Leadership Council's connection to the Muslim Brotherhood? The article doesn't say, so we called the author, Steven Allen Adams. We told him we were having a hard time following the logic, because his article did not support the claim that the Arab American Leadership Council "has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood."
After re-reading his item, Adams said: "I'm not even following my own logic on it, which is a terrible thing to say.
Why would Adams make up a false claim that was later used by Spike's campaign?
Because he was an early cheerleader for the disgraced former judge?
heath harrison back in December 2009:
Wingnut Web site The West Virginia Watchdog is pushing the idea that former Supreme Court Justice Elliot "Spike" Maynard, who was booted from office by the voters following a little photo problem, is a possibility to challenge Representative Nick Rahall in next year's election.
The Watchdog hilariously thinks Spike is the kind of 'statesman' the race needs.
I guess Spike and his supporters are desperate to distract voters with phony claims about Rahall in order to keep them from remembering Spike's association with his Monaco vacation buddy, Don Blankenship.
 Spike Maynard with Massey Coal's Don Blankenship on vacation in the French Riviera not long before Spike ruled in Blankenship's favor to overturn a $76 million dollar verdict against Massey. As attorney Bruce Stanley, a Pittsburgh lawyer representing Caperton, said later "It is beyond the realm of human comprehension that any judge could claim any semblance of impartiality when, before casting the deciding vote in a $76 million case, he accompanies the CEO of the litigant on a luxurious trip to the French Riviera."
...
Nick Rahall represents the people of his district in West Virginia. Spike would only represent the interests of his Monaco vacation buddy Don Blankenship. Spike would move to deregulate every safety regulation in the book because lives are less important than Don Blankenship's profits.
Three months before the Aracoma mine fire, Massey CEO Don Blankenship sent managers a memo saying, "If any of you have been asked by your group presidents, your supervisors, engineers or anyone else to do anything other than run coal . . . you need to ignore them and run coal. This memo is necessary only because we seem not to understand that the coal pays the bills." [Logan Banner, 9/1/06]
Fortunately voters in WV-03 have more sense than to allow Blankenship to buy a Congressional seat for his Monaco vacation buddy.
But to the West Virginia Watchdog, the disgraced former judge was a candidate worth touting back in December.* I can't follow Adams' logic on that either, which is a terrible thing to say. |
