-By Warner Todd Huston
Democrats in Boise, Idaho are pretending they’ve done nothing wrong, as Democrats are wont, wide-eyed in amazement that anyone would question their morality after they produced a political mailer that gave out the Social Security numbers of a political opponent in a 1st Congressional District race there.
The Republican, Bill Sali and his wife Terry, found their SS# printed on a mailer put out by the Idaho Democratic Party that raises concerns about past due taxes that the Sali family had earlier in their marriage. The mailer contained copies of records of the Sali’s past tax problems in an effort to call into question his fiscal responsibility.
For his part, Jim Hansen, executive director of the Idaho Democratic Party, protests innocence pointing out that the records are publicly available. And then, to try and misdirect from the issue, Hansen says that if Sali doesn’t want his SS# broadcast to everyone he should have paid his taxes. “If he was going to be upset,” Hansen said “he probably should have paid off his bills and his taxes.”
Of course, the entire campaign is a cynical attempt to mislead. Sali reports that some of the tax troubles he had happened over 20 years ago when he and his wife were young, just out of college and first married. Others were due to medical expenses he incurred. The past-due taxes were all paid in full.
Sali told reporters for the Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington that, “There were tax liens from 20 years ago. It’s bills that were paid off. … And yet the state Democrats think that it’s somehow OK to take two people’s personal financial information, including Social Security numbers, and splash it all over people’s mailboxes.”
But, the real question here isn’t if Sali had past problems that he satisfied, but if it is a legitimate campaign tactic to release personal information of an opponent that has nothing to do with a political campaign? In this day of chronic ID theft, is it an innocent action to print your political opponents personal information?
Sali is right to be upset at tis lowdown action by Idaho Democrats. Looks to me like just another example that Democrats see no line not worth crossing for a win.
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston