As candidates for public office, it is important to our district, and the nation, to conduct ourselves with patriotic respect for opposing views, and we must not forget that those who distort and exhort run the risk of encouraging the wrong types of people.
Case in point: the 64 year old Selah resident recently arrested for threatening to kill Sen. Patty Murray. If you read the transcripts of the threats this man left on answering machines at the Senator’s office, you can see he was repeating FOX News talking points. That kind of overheated rhetoric employed by commentators like Beck and Limbaugh has contributed to the heightening of tensions across the nation. Even Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), a staunch conservative, found himself defending Nancy Pelosi and criticizing FOX News bias to confused constituents in a recent town hall meeting.
Now is the time for responsible leaders to restate the most basic principle of our democracy: honest political debate, not characterized by personal attacks and wild distortions.
I have today called upon my opponent, Congressman Richard Hastings (R-WA 04), to stand with me in issuing a joint statement urging our citizens to ignore inflammatory rhetoric and respect one another as fellow citizens of a great nation. I encourage "Doc" to listen to a real doctor, Dr. Coburn, and take his message to heart.
The good people of the 4th District deserve honesty and straight talk about the issues facing us. In the Marines, where I proudly volunteered to serve this country, we lived by a creed based on integrity and honor. Would that our current congressman lived up to the same model.