Monday, July 4, 2011

Tito Muñoz goes to the McDonnell/Bolling establishment playbook against Jeff Frederick...

...and deserves to be taken to task for it.

With the header "In Case You Missed It From Today's Bearing Drift Blog Post:"...the Muñoz campaign emailed me the text of this Hoeft hit-piece on Jeff from Bearing Drift from Friday, followed by "Authorized and paid for by Friends of Tito Muñoz".

I'll start by fisking the piece itself, and then we'll deal with Mr. Muñoz and his campaign.

"Jeff Frederick attempts a recast"

We'll see about that one.

"After being removed from office by the Republican Party of Virginia as Chairman, the once three-term state delegate, Jeff Frederick, is trying to cast himself as an outsider in his bid to become the Republican nominee for state senator."

He doesn't NEED to 'try.' You and the rest of the old-guard and Bob McDonnell's minions were out to get him from the moment he routed Hager at the convention to win the chairmanship. Or, as a friend of mine who sits on SCC related it to me.." It's the same people who have ALWAYS run RPV, and they know how close they were to losing it all, losing control with Jeff as chair." So yeah, I think we can definitively say Jeff Frederick is an outsider.

"In a recent mailing to voters in the 36th District, Frederick says he wants to “End Politics As Usual in Virginia.”

“Our families deserve someone who will stand up to the career politicians. They deserve an honest, independent, common-sense voice.”

It’s interesting to note that Frederick, who did serve for six years in the House of Delegates, wants to serve another four in the state Senate, was chairman of the RPV, and is running for the Republican nomination, is not actually running as an independent candidate; he wants the endorsement from one of the two political parties that dominates our political system to back his bid."

I think Hoeft is showing us a bit of how he thinks... "this guy is trying to be a Republican, therefore he'd damn well better march in lockstep, OR ELSE! No 'independent voices' allowed!" Way to be hyperliteralist, by the way. I'm just going to GUESS that perhaps Jeff means 'independent' in the intellectual sense, not in the sense of being independent of a political party. Quite a shock to you and your friends, no doubt, Mr. Hoeft.

"He writes:

“The career politicians in Richmond have made a mess of our economy and have put future generations at risk.”

Interesting choice of words. So, would that mean that Governor Bob McDonnell and his leadership team who have built Virginia into being #1 for business and balanced the budget without raising taxes have “made a mess of our economy”?"

Well, he just might. Not to break up your circle of RINO-McDonnell-worship, but he balanced the budget using federal money, and has given tax breaks - effective tax hikes for the rest of us - to businesses to move to Virginia. That sounds like standard-issue establishment behavior to me, it's not conservative or honest, and it won't fly with me. I'm sure Jeff meant primarily the current members of the Senate of Virginia, but hey, you brought up your hero McDonnell.

"This coming from the man who almost buried the Republican Party of Virginia? RPV is just now overcoming the tens of thousands of dollars in debt Frederick ran up on the party’s credit card. If you want a Microsoft Office product, just visit the Obenshain building on Grace St. in Richmond.

“Sure, they talk about creating jobs, but, in reality, they vote time and time again for job-killing tax hikes, new regulations and more wasteful government programs.”

If he’s talking about his presumptive Democratic opponent, State Sen. Toddy Puller, then, yeah, he has a point. But Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling, the state’s chief jobs creation officer, has done more than talk – he’s delivered. And Virginia has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country. It’s still not good enough, because there are people still out of work, but it could be much worse if not for public servants like Bolling."

Firstly, Jeff demolishes the "10 charges" in Mr. Hoeft's linked piece here. Regarding that cute little Microsoft joke, a large amount of MS Office packages were an in-kind contribution to RPV months before Jeff Frederick became chairman. As regards Bolling, THIS is again indicative of the RINO mindset... Government or "public servants" can't create jobs. The main thing government can do is get out of the way and let the private sector create them. Again... you brought these guys up, Mr. Hoeft, not me. Just sayin'.

"Frederick has every right to want to earn votes from the people of the 36th District, but he could try to do so with a little more discretion and credibility."

The only ones lacking in discretion and credibility here are you, Mr. Hoeft... and the Muñoz campaign.

Speaking of the Muñoz campaign, I'll take this opportunity to state I am a Jeff Frederick supporter in the primary and have been since learning of his interest in running in the 36th. Having said, that, I liked Tito Muñoz well enough, having met him a couple of times at events, and would have happily worked to help him defeat the odious Toddy Puller in November had he gotten the nomination. Given the eagerness of he and his supporters to push this hit piece by Hoeft, I'm having to rethink that. If he and they will stoop so low so quickly, perhaps he should question his fitness for public office. I can overlook his stumping for the mediocre (and that's being very kind) John McCain, we were all pretty worried about an Obama presidency, and justifiably so as it turns out. But to instantly seize on this sort of establishment hack attacking Jeff... well, he just hurt himself and his conservative credentials. Badly.

Jeff Frederick for Senate of Virginia, 36th District. That is all.