I first heard about scandal-ridden Bob Ney’s bigoted robocall against opponent Zack Space in this post at Buckeye State Blog. It seems Bob Ney, who is constantly in the news due to investigations into his possible ethics violations and ties to lobbyist Jack Abramoff, is falling back on the standard tactic of the truly desperate Republican–appealing to people’s fears and prejudices. (Side note: see editorial Nervous GOP focuses on hot buttons) Rachel Maddow has a rough transcript of the robocall, as well as her own commentary on the matter posted here.
“Hello, my name is Juanita (?) and I am very concerned about what I’ve heard recently about Congressional Candidate Zack Space. Zack claims to care about Ohio Values. He has been spending a lot of time lately with national liberal and gay rights leaders to raise money for his campaign. Just last week Zack was on an ultra-liberal radio show from New York City hosted by a cross dressing lesbian when he told me that social values are no longer that important. Zack Space claims the 18th District wants a progressive leader. But we all know that progressive is nothing more than a code word for higher taxes, more gun control, more abortions, and more gay marriages. Tell Zack Space that social values do matter to those of us in Ohio. Even if they don’t matter to his ultra-liberal friends in the rest of the country. Paid for by Bob Ney for Congress”
Read the transcript of Zack Space’s interview with Rachel Maddow on Air America to see how the call is (duh) a gross misrepresentation of what was actually said. Also–something that was news to me since I’m not in his district–it was heartening to hear of a case in Ohio where a candidate won the primary in spite of not being the one supported by the national Democratic poobahs.