Lee Benson of the Deseret News destroyed Mia Love's chances of being elected in his column last Sunday http://www.deseretnews.com/...
I'm not sure Congressman Jim Matheson can go after this hard himself, but follow me past the squiggle and I'll explain why and how we should throw the anvil.
Why?
1. Speaker Pelosi!
2. Because Matheson is a Blue Dog, you need more? Pull your head out long enough to take a good look at reason #1!
How?
By reminding everyone that might be inclined to vote for her know that Lee Benson called her out as a liar in his column. Benson writes a twice-weekly column about local and Mormon Church and culture for the institutional Mormon newspaper, the Deseret News. He was promoted out of the Sports Editing job he loved to be the guy the Mormon Church's newspaper pays to write about the Mormon Church. He is connected, he is also widely respected and well-liked.
And Benson wrote this about Love:
Congressional candidate Mia Love says she doesn't remember telling a Deseret News reporter that her birth in 1975 was her immigrant family's ticket to freedom.
Well I remember her telling it. I was that reporter.
Yes, sometime since taking office as Mayor of Sarasota Springs, Mia Love forgot the story of her family's immigration from Haiti. Benson remembered the story, and he had notes. He also had a photographer in the room.
Now if Mia had run as a Democrat, she could have run with the truth and been a first-generation American hero, but as an ultra-right wing star, actually being the dreaded anchor baby is a problem. She has shown she is not ready for prime time by not being prepared to talk about this.
This is obviously the story Love has told about her family for years, and thinking she could get through election day without dealing with it is crazy.
Benson concludes his column:
I know all this because I have it in my memory, and my notes.
Alongside this one about something she said her parents told her: "They said we had you on purpose; you were our ticket to the free world."
Twenty months later, she suddenly has amnesia and won't return my calls.
I have a bad feeling about this.
It is time for calls and letters to the local media. She needs to both embrace her family's story, and apologize for lying about it.