10-7-02-02, Political Footnotes
VAN HILLEQUIST:
DUPINT THE PUBLIC
By Stuart James
IPS Features
Van Hilleary—Republican candidate for Governor, also
known as Van Hillequist, is duping the public. Take for example his
television commercial on Phil Bredesen and the income tax. Here is what
his commercial states, in pertinent part:
Announcer: “Phil Bredesen and high taxes,
they go way back… Now he’s running for governor…and read his lips…he
says he could change his mind and support the income tax in his next term...”
Quote from Bredesen-“If I were to change my
mind…”Announcer Interrupts before the quote is completed: “Where
have we heard that before? Maybe we should call him Phil BredeSundquist.”
Van Hillequist’s ad only quotes the first seven words
of what Mr. Bredesen actually said—“If I were to change my mind…”
Here is what Mr. Bredesen said, in its entirety:
“If I were to change my mind, and I don’t think that’s going to happen,
I would certainly say to you that I would run for re-election with that or
anything else I wanted to do with the tax system as a matter to be decided in
that process.”
The Van Hillequist ad, to be credible, needed to put the
entire quote before the public. However, the Van Hillequist ad is designed to do
one thing--dupe the voter by giving the voter misinformation on statements made
by Mr. Bredesen.
Contrary to what the ad will have you believe, Phil
Bredesen’s statement is clear—if he were to change his mind, which he doubts
he would do, Mr. Bredesen has the character to run for re-election by putting
the issues before the voters. Mr. Bredesen is willing to let the voters
decide important issues through the election process—something Mr. Hillequist
is unwilling to do.
If Mr. Hillequist is honest, he will pull the ad.
Mr. Hillequist will also apologize to the public for placing a misleading ad on
the air. Like Governor Sundquist, Mr. Hillequist is campaigning on
misinformation—he is duping the public.
Despite the Van Hillequist’s efforts to mislead, Mr.
Bredesen’s position on an income tax cannot get any clearer than this:
“I’m Phil Bredesen…and Van Hilleary wants you to
believe that I somehow secretly favor an income tax. Well, Mr. Hilleary,
I’ll say it again as clearly as I know how…I do not support an income tax.
I do not believe it’s the solution to our problems in Tennessee. We need
better management in state government. We need to fix TennCare, and we
need to get Tennessee’s economy moving again. That’s the change we
need. Not an income tax.”
It is time for Mr. Van Hillequist to stop duping the
public, and run a campaign based upon the facts. The Tennessee voter
cannot, however, expect Van Hillequist to change—as the BredeSundquist
commercial shows us, Van Hillequist feels he has to “dupe the public” to
win.
Stuart F. James
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