StopLouBarletta.com

A few days ago, Mayor Lou Barletta issued a statement blasting Congressman Paul Kanjorski for comments that he made on Democratic promises to end the war in Iraq.  Lou Barletta, in his statement, said that Kanjorski’s statements were “appalling and disgraceful”.  Considering the fact that Lou Barletta has yet to take a stand, of any sort, on the Iraq War, I find it “appalling and disgraceful” that he would attack Kanjorski for making his comments.

Just so we’re all on the same page, here are the comments that has Mayor Lou Barletta so “appalled”…

“I’ll tell you my impression. We really in this last election – when I say we, the Democrats – I think pushed it as far as we can, the envelope. Didn’t say it, but we implied it – that we, if we won the Congressional elections, we could stop the war. Now anybody who is a good student of government would know that wasn’t true. But you know, the temptation to want to win back the Congress, we sort of stretched the facts – and people ate it up.”

Now let me be clear; I’m not defending or offering an explanation for Kanjorski’s comments.  Personally, I didn’t think there was much to them (just another example of politicians being politicians), but I suppose if you read into them enough, you could probably find something to get worked up over.  I’m also not saying that Barletta has no right to criticize his opponent.  What I am saying, however, is that it is preposterous for Mayor Barletta to criticize Paul Kanjorski for making comments on a subject that Lou Barletta has yet to address himself.

Lou Barletta has yet to announce where he stands on the war in Iraq.  Does he support keeping our troops there to complete the mission?  Does he want to pull them out, and if so, when?  Does he think the War in Iraq was justified?  As a member of Congress, these are all questions that he will have to answer.  However, Mayor Barletta has yet to address any of them.  Instead, he criticizes his opponent for making comments on the issue, while at the same time, refusing to release a statement explaining where he himself stands on the issue.

Lou Barletta is hoping that all he has to do to get elected to Congress is criticize his opponent.  Considering that Paul Kanjorski is one of the most senior members of the House of Representatives and has a vast supply of campaign funds on hand (while Barletta has almost none), this strategy seems weak at best.  Lou Barletta’s mudslinging tactics may have been enough to get him elected mayor of Hazleton, but I seriously doubt that such a strategy will be enough to wage an effective Congressional campaign.  Clearly, Mayor Lou Barletta is not fit to be a United States Congressman.

-Dan Cheek
www.StopLouBarletta.com
StopLouBarletta@gmail.com

This entry was posted on Friday, May 30th, 2008 at 8:55 am and is filed under On the Issues . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.