A Desperate Politician Oregonians Can't Trust

Paulie Brading

Gordon Smith needs and wants to be seen as a moderate Republican in Oregon. He shifts positions with feints to the left and then to the right. In the process his stands on positions are finally being seen by voters as pure mush. With so much pandering, Smith certainly seems panicked. Smith's own ambivalence makes it hard to tell if he's running for himself or the Republican Party. Even though Smith votes 9 out of 10 times with the Bush administration he claims he's not a conservative. Even though he's been ranked as the 5th highest recipient of lobby contributions he somehow manages to drag out a position to try to pass himself off as something other than a Bush enabling incumbent. It should be clear to all Oregonians that Smith is a pro-Bush politician.

The attack needs to be on Smith's unpopular votes. The list of his votes includes Smith's own words, "I voted for toppling a chief terrorist and tyrant to rid him of weapons of mass destruction." Ilegal wiretaps, torture, minimum wage, health care, tax cuts to the Medicare Rx plan, and his strong feelings against Roe v. Wade effectively communicate Gordon Smith's shortcomings. Smith is first and foremost a pro-Bush politician. This senate campaign is first and foremost about Gordon Smith. We all need to aggressively criticize Smith's record.

The Oregonian has been slow to realize that there has been a dying off of moderate Republicans. Oregonian reporters of a "certain age" yearn for the days of Hatfield, Packwood and McCall. In their yearning they are quick to work with Gordon Smith to help him "sell" his eposodic moderation during his campaigns. Gordon Smith endorsed John McCain. Gordon Smith was the Chair of the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign. Gordon Smith has voted in lockstep with the Bush administration since he took office in 1996. The United States of America is in trouble due to the incompentency of Bush.

Gordon Smith learned his "style" of detached formalism while attending a prep school in Maryland. He's up against a quality candidate who's background is very different. Merkley is an Oregon rural and working class guy who pulled himself up by the bootstraps. We are about to elect the second Democratic president in 28 years. Democrats and non-affilated voters are going to swarm to the polls. Sloppy Gordon Smith actually coupled his image with Barack Obama in hopes of swaying voters to vote for him. Yeah, that'll work.

Desperate Gordon Smith, newly coined, the"Sofa Senator" by none other than the Oregonian, is running a boat load of deceptive ads about furniture built by Oregon inmates destined to be used for 25 to 30 years in the Oregon legislature. Wonder if Gordon remembers his one term as president of the Oregon Senate in 1995 when he lavishly decorated his senate office and kicked the senate secretary out of the space to make room for some of the most gorgeous furniture ever seen. Sure, he paid for the furniture but the question is, if the furniture wasn't up to Gordon's standards then, why is he making replacing old ugly furniture an issue now? Desperate? Remember the meaning of integrity Mr. Smith?

It's time to fire the incumbent and hire the new guy!

By Paulie Brading Aug. 18, 2008