Cross-posted in Orange, because even in my absence, I sense that Kossacks may like to read about a Green voting for Dem
The Lansing State Journal failed to endorse either candidate in the 8th Congressional district race. Neither candidate was qualified. At least that is what you were led to believe if you read the Journal’s editorial page.
Of course, the non-endorsement was a big, fat, corporate-controlled lie. The real story has been broken by the small press in the 8th District. A member of the LSJ Editorial Board has resigned over this fiasco, and explains the lie in yesterday’s Lansing City Pulse:
On Oct. 8, after interviewing both candidates for the 8th District congressional seat, the board voted 5-1 to endorse Jim Marcinkowski. Leslie Hurst, the publisher, sat in on the interviews but was not present when the discussion took place or when the decision was made.
On Oct. 23, board members were sent an e-mail with the next day’s editorial. It proclaimed that both candidates were “too flawed” for the paper to endorse. Marcinkowski was attacked for having “too little experience” and for appearing “glib” and dismissive.
While the e-mail explained that the publisher felt strongly that Marcinkowski “did not rise to the level of a congressman,” a later e-mail explained that Hurst had wanted the LSJ to endorse Rep. Mike Rogers but had been persuaded to accept the non-endorsement of both candidates as a compromise.
It turns out that the LSJ Editorial Board had 5-1 to endorse Democratic candidate Jim Marcinkowski, after interviewing both candidates.
The editorial claimed that “the board in good conscience cannot recommend the candidacy of either man.” This is patently not true. We did, with a clear conscience, decide to endorse Marcinkowski, and our decision was then vetoed by one member of the board, the publisher.
— snip —
I requested that the publisher permit me to write a short letter expressing my dissent. I wanted this to appear on the editorial page of the LSJ before the election. I wanted readers to know that the board had chosen to endorse Marcinkowski. The publisher declined, and I have therefore asked City Pulse to set the record straight.
Hurst vetoed the endorsement of Marcinkowski, published the non-endorsement without input from the editorial board, and refused to allow publication of the truth.
Suppressing the truth. That’s Republican-corporate-fascism for you. Thanks to the Lansing State Journal for helping me see the light. You see, I was not a huge Jim Marcinkowski fan. I was leaning Green. But baloney like this needs to stop. I’m voting for Marcinkowski. I encourage those fence-sitters, independents, Greens, and moderate Republicans to join me. Rogers has been an absolute rubber-stamp for the torturer-in-chief’s failed policies. He ought to be stopped. Just, as the Editorial Board of the Lansing State Journal so correctly concluded, before they were muzzled.
I haven’t seen much on here about MI-08 being a close race, but I’m hoping for a tsunami on Tuesday. It would be nice to see the MSM pick-up on this absolute baloney. This administration has literally bought the media in many cases, as we know. But where are we without a free press?
For an honest endorsement, here is what the City Pulse had to say.
U.S. House, 8th District: Mike Rogers (R) vs.
Jim Marcinkowski (D)Rogers’ positive, informational television commercials on relevant issues should be the standard in a year of channel-changing productions of twisted facts and disconnected logic. That said, Rogers’ decision to embrace the international mess created by President Bush’s wrong-headed foreign policies is as distressing as his outdated views on most social issues. The 8th Congressional District isn’t nearly as conservative as Mike Rogers, and it’s time that message gets sent.
Marcinkowski is far from being a Ted Kennedy liberal, but he’s not an “I-drank-the-punch” Bible thumper either. And the way the rest of the congressional races are shaping up nationally, a Rep. Marcinkowski could find himself in the majority party, an extra bonus for mid-Michigan.
City Pulse supports: Marcinkowski
Onward toward a more perfect Union.
