This post is in response to the comments made by Republican U.S. Senate candidate Van Hilleary recently on Steve Gill's radio show. Van Hilleary should be ashamed for the comments he made regarding Congressman Harold Ford Jr. and his family.
Personally, I thought Van had more character than to personally attack Congressman Ford and his family.
Besides personally attacking Congressman Ford and his family, Van lied about Congressman Ford's record during the interview with Steve Gill.
While Van insinuated Congressman Ford supports gay marriage, the facts show otherwise.
The truth is, Congressman Ford is strongly opposed to gay marriage and even voted for the constitutional amendment to ban it last September.
Instead of issuing personal attacks and lying about Congressman Ford and his family, Van should be talking about the issues that matter the most to Tennesseans such as health care, heating prices, gas prices, the budget, jobs, and the situation in Iraq.
These kind of cheap political tactics have become typical of Van Hilleary, however. And one can only assume that his most recent attack is just a taste of what is to come as the campaign moves toward 2006.
Van Hilleary knows Congressman Ford is the front runner in this race.
That could be the reason why he why he issued these vile attacks.
Another explanation for the attacks could just be that Van is desperate and struggling to keep his campaign afloat.
Just recently it was brought to light that he had accepted money from two tribes connected to Delay cohort, Jack Abramoff. To make matters worse, Van also just recently lost the Tennessee Right To Life endorsement to his Republican opponent Ed Bryant.
Those incidents along with realization that he has no vision or new ideas to put forth in this race, could have all played a part in these nasty attacks.
However, whatever the case, the attacks were way out of line and uncalled for.
Simply put: Van's actions are ones not worthy of a U.S. Senator.
The people of Tennessee are sick and tired of these kind of hardball political tactics and deserve better. They deserve someone with character and integrity to be their next U.S. Senator.
