Common Sense

I did the journalist thing Friday when I asked the Van Taylor campaign for a rebuttal to the call by Chet Edwards to release how much stock he owns in ExxonMobil. ExxonMobil’s earning report for the first quarter of 2006 showed $8.4 billion profits. No one can say I’m not at least attempting to be fair in this race.

Taylor said, “Let me tell you something about Van Taylor, my parents taught me about honesty, integrity, hard work and faith. I am beholden to no one, I am a man of character and conviction, and when I get to Washington, I will be working for one cause, the cause of the people of Central Texas.”

The move is an apparent effort to cover up the fact that Congressman Edwards has taken almost $400,000 in special interest oil and energy money for his campaign

“I am actually taken aback by Chet’s hypocrisy,” said Taylor of Edwards’ claims. “I am disappointed in the Congressman and his lack of action to fix the problem. Texans need answers on this issue, not dirty pass-the-blame politics.”

Although it is no secret that I am with Edwards 100%, I’ve been trying to be a real journalist in covering this race. Chet doesn’t really need me to be a hack, he’s got his record and some pretty good operatives in his campaign. Still, I find myself in the unique position of both putting out this press release, and being able to refute it since I’m not a real journalist.

The release goes on and on calling Chet’s call as an “attack” or as “dirty pass-the-blame politics.” They even refer to this as “negative campaigning.” If this is negative campaigning, I can’t wait to see what happens in October!

I don’t think I’ve called this an attack on Van Taylor anyway. I would certainly like to see transparency. It is that very same transparency that allows them to argue that Chet has taken $400,000 from oil companies. I would like to see volunteering of information from Taylor.

About that $400,000. I think Taylor’s people are arguing that Chet would be beholden to oil companies for those campaign contributions, but logic would suggest that if that were true, then Taylor himself would indeed be compelled to protect oil profits since they are tied to his personal wealth, which is a much greater sum than the $400K. We don’t know how great a sum (which is what this argument is all about) but it is supposed to be between $5 and $25 million dollars in ExxonMobil stock.

Taylor says, however, that he will not be beholden to those companies. That he will be “working for one cause, the cause of the people of Central Texas.”

I have no idea what that cause is. This is a very large and varied district. It snakes all the way from the suburbs of Ft. Worth to Texas A&M’s campus. We don’t all agree on what issues are the biggest in our lives. We definitely aren’t all in the same income tax bracket. I would ask him to define what he thinks that cause is further.

No politician is all that clean. Taylor’s release only makes me have more questions about his stock holdings and why he wouldn’t want to just get it out there and move past it. Certainly people in the district wouldn’t like the fact that he is that wealthy and is so because of ExxonMobil’s profits. But if he connected with the people, let’s face it, all of us would like to be in his shoes. If we had the money to invest, we would like to have a slice of that pie and we would be the hypocritical ones to condemn him for it.

Full release after the jump Edwards Continues Hypocritical Attacks

Taylor Calls for Action not Mud Slinging

WACO- - At a time when Americans are suffering from high gas prices, Chet
Edwards attacks his Republican opponent, Iraq War combat veteran Van Taylor, instead of taking action.

Democrat incumbent Congressman Chet Edwards has repeatedly attacked
Republican opponent Van Taylor, his latest attack falsely claims that Taylor
would be beholden to energy companies if elected to Congress.

Taylor said, “Let me tell you something about Van Taylor, my parents taught
me about honesty, integrity, hard work and faith. I am beholden to no one, I
am a man of character and conviction, and when I get to Washington, I will
be working for one cause, the cause of the people of Central Texas.”

The move is an apparent effort to cover up the fact that Congressman Edwards has taken almost $400,000 in special interest oil and energy money for his campaign

“I am actually taken aback by Chet’s hypocrisy,” said Taylor of Edwards’
claims. “I am disappointed in the Congressman and his lack of action to fix
the problem. Texans need answers on this issue, not dirty pass-the-blame
politics.”

Edwards continues to attack Van Taylor, and the shame of it is that while
Texans are hurting from high gas prices, these attacks do nothing to solve
the problem.

Chet Edwards knows his political career is coming to an end and he is
desperate to hang on to his job. The Edwards Campaign is obviously
floundering if they need to launch negative attacks in April.

“This guy attacked me back in September before I was even the nominee, he
attacked me the day after I won the nomination, he attacked me two weeks ago about not having enough money to run a good campaign, three days ago for somehow being funded by the hard right, and yesterday he attacked me for being funded by big oil. The shame of it is his attacks are designed solely
to gain political advantage at a time when Texans are hurting. They are
ludicrous and hypocritical, after all this is the same man who has taken
over $380,000 from oil and energy lobbyists to fund his campaigns, nobody is accusing him of being beholden to big oil.”

I did the journalist thing Friday when I asked the Van Taylor campaign for a rebuttal to the call by Chet Edwards to release how much stock he owns in ExxonMobil. ExxonMobil’s earning report for the first quarter of 2006 showed $8.4 billion profits. No one can say I’m not at least attempting to be fair in this race.

Taylor said, “Let me tell you something about Van Taylor, my parents taught me about honesty, integrity, hard work and faith. I am beholden to no one, I am a man of character and conviction, and when I get to Washington, I will be working for one cause, the cause of the people of Central Texas.”

The move is an apparent effort to cover up the fact that Congressman Edwards has taken almost $400,000 in special interest oil and energy money for his campaign

“I am actually taken aback by Chet’s hypocrisy,” said Taylor of Edwards’ claims. “I am disappointed in the Congressman and his lack of action to fix the problem. Texans need answers on this issue, not dirty pass-the-blame politics.”

Although it is no secret that I am with Edwards 100%, I’ve been trying to be a real journalist in covering this race. Chet doesn’t really need me to be a hack, he’s got his record and some pretty good operatives in his campaign. Still, I find myself in the unique position of both putting out this press release, and being able to refute it since I’m not a real journalist.

The release goes on and on calling Chet’s call as an “attack” or as “dirty pass-the-blame politics.” They even refer to this as “negative campaigning.” If this is negative campaigning, I can’t wait to see what happens in October!

I don’t think I’ve called this an attack on Van Taylor anyway. I would certainly like to see transparency. It is that very same transparency that allows them to argue that Chet has taken $400,000 from oil companies. I would like to see volunteering of information from Taylor.

About that $400,000. I think Taylor’s people are arguing that Chet would be beholden to oil companies for those campaign contributions, but logic would suggest that if that were true, then Taylor himself would indeed be compelled to protect oil profits since they are tied to his personal wealth, which is a much greater sum than the $400K. We don’t know how great a sum (which is what this argument is all about) but it is supposed to be between $5 and $25 million dollars in ExxonMobil stock.

Taylor says, however, that he will not be beholden to those companies. That he will be “working for one cause, the cause of the people of Central Texas.”

I have no idea what that cause is. This is a very large and varied district. It snakes all the way from the suburbs of Ft. Worth to Texas A&M’s campus. We don’t all agree on what issues are the biggest in our lives. We definitely aren’t all in the same income tax bracket. I would ask him to define what he thinks that cause is further.

No politician is all that clean. Taylor’s release only makes me have more questions about his stock holdings and why he wouldn’t want to just get it out there and move past it. Certainly people in the district wouldn’t like the fact that he is that wealthy and is so because of ExxonMobil’s profits. But if he connected with the people, let’s face it, all of us would like to be in his shoes. If we had the money to invest, we would like to have a slice of that pie and we would be the hypocritical ones to condemn him for it.

Full release after the jump Edwards Continues Hypocritical Attacks

Taylor Calls for Action not Mud Slinging

WACO- - At a time when Americans are suffering from high gas prices, Chet
Edwards attacks his Republican opponent, Iraq War combat veteran Van Taylor, instead of taking action.

Democrat incumbent Congressman Chet Edwards has repeatedly attacked
Republican opponent Van Taylor, his latest attack falsely claims that Taylor
would be beholden to energy companies if elected to Congress.

Taylor said, “Let me tell you something about Van Taylor, my parents taught
me about honesty, integrity, hard work and faith. I am beholden to no one, I
am a man of character and conviction, and when I get to Washington, I will
be working for one cause, the cause of the people of Central Texas.”

The move is an apparent effort to cover up the fact that Congressman Edwards has taken almost $400,000 in special interest oil and energy money for his campaign

“I am actually taken aback by Chet’s hypocrisy,” said Taylor of Edwards’
claims. “I am disappointed in the Congressman and his lack of action to fix
the problem. Texans need answers on this issue, not dirty pass-the-blame
politics.”

Edwards continues to attack Van Taylor, and the shame of it is that while
Texans are hurting from high gas prices, these attacks do nothing to solve
the problem.

Chet Edwards knows his political career is coming to an end and he is
desperate to hang on to his job. The Edwards Campaign is obviously
floundering if they need to launch negative attacks in April.

“This guy attacked me back in September before I was even the nominee, he
attacked me the day after I won the nomination, he attacked me two weeks ago about not having enough money to run a good campaign, three days ago for somehow being funded by the hard right, and yesterday he attacked me for being funded by big oil. The shame of it is his attacks are designed solely
to gain political advantage at a time when Texans are hurting. They are
ludicrous and hypocritical, after all this is the same man who has taken
over $380,000 from oil and energy lobbyists to fund his campaigns, nobody is accusing him of being beholden to big oil.”